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8 Qualities of a Good Coach – How to Be Truly Exceptional

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The coaching industry has exploded with new talent, focusing not only on personal growth but also on a holistic approach to development. Yet, it’s difficult to measure the number of exceptional coaches in the world today…coaches who make way for massive impact and transformation in their clients’ lives. This brings us to explore the essential coaching attributes, qualities of an effective coach, traits of a good coach, and what makes a great coach in business.

One thing is for certain though, almost every coach is always looking to be a better version of themselves and do a better job for their clients. Learning from more experienced peers, getting formal training, tracking self-improvement across engagements, and more.

Different coaches have different approaches, methodologies, styles, and ideologies with which they craft their own unique manner of coaching. But there are some characteristics of a coach that (ideally) are essential. Every coach should possess – or at least aim to cultivate these coaching attributes and qualities of an effective coach – in order to show up for clients and deliver optimal coaching results.

We’ve curated a list of 8 qualities of a coach that we believe are a must-have, reflecting the traits of a good coach and underscoring what makes a great coach in business. Let’s dive deeper!

1. Driven

This is perhaps one of the most important characteristics of a good coach. As a self-start kind of profession, unlike a salaried position in an organisation, coaching requires a coach to have a drive and appetite to succeed in the industry.

Largely, people become coaches and start their own practice or business – something that comes with a lot of uncertainty and ups & downs. A salaried job provides a certain stability to an individual, and having one’s own practice can be rather unpredictable. Without the necessary drive and strong reason as to ‘why’ a coach chooses to be a coach, it can become rather apparent in the way they show up for their clients (half-heartedly, for instance), which is a lose-lose situation for both the coach and the client.

2. Non-judgmental

Imagine a coach being judgmental!

The entire premise of coaching, and also how it differs significantly from other similar practises such as mentoring, consulting, and counselling, is that it believes that the client has the ability to come up with their own solutions to problems and assess what is right or wrong for them. So, if a coach were to bring in their judgement about what they believe the client should do or how they ought to think, then they would no longer be coaching.

Keeping their judgments and beliefs aside and listening to the client from a neutral place is a much-needed quality for a coach.

3. Compassionate

An individual or a group of people can never truly open up to their coach if the coach can’t hold space for their clients and show empathy towards them as well as their unique situations and difficulties. Even if they have not gone through what the client has faced (or is facing), it is vital that the coach is able to step into the client’s shoes and look at things from their perspective.

Without the coach being understanding, kind, and uplifting towards the client, a coaching engagement and journey can never be truly successful.

4. Curious

Even though the coach is supposed to serve as the ‘expert’ guide to their clients, a ‘been there, done that’ kind of attitude may not necessarily contribute positively to the coaching session and engagement.

For the coach to be able to truly be present for their clients, each situation would need to be addressed and looked at from a clean slate. Which means that the path or manner taken to address one client’s situation may not work for another client and thus having a ‘curiosity’ mindset can prevent a coach from falling into the trap of copy-pasting a strategy or approach for someone else.

Another aspect of being curious is for the coach to also always have a ‘learner’ mindset. That means understanding that learning is never fully complete and to regularly take the time to upgrade their skills and credentials with the help of trainings and workshops in order to show up better for the client.

5. Observant

One of the essential skills and qualities of a coach is to be extremely observant of the client in front of them. Without being observant of not just what is being said verbally, but also being aware of the non-verbal cues, is an important skill for a coach to cultivate.

Not all clients are going to be expressive and communicative. By observing and silently making note of non-verbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, eye movements, hand gestures, and even the smallest of twitches and flutters, a coach can know a lot more about the client in front of them than what they’d consciously tell them.

6. Authentic

One of the most underrated characteristics of a coach, authenticity is not only vital in any coach-client relationship but can be the difference between a good vs an exceptional experience for the client. In a coach-client relationship, there is this expectation for the coach to be the ‘expert’ and there is thus the added expectation that they must know it all and have solutions for every problem. But there are times when a coach doesn’t know or have an answer – and in those instances, to be able to let the client know the same with utmost honesty and humility is what sets a good coach apart.

Another situation in which authenticity is paramount is when a coach feels, due to whatever reason, that they are not the right fit for the client – even after they have been coaching them for a while. In that case, the coach should be able to tell the client that they will not be able to continue with them and if possible, refer them to another professional who they feel might be a better fit. This serves in the best interest of the individual and that is, after all, what every coach wants for their clients!

7. Professional

There are times in a coach-client relationship when the client becomes immensely grateful for the way the coach has opened their mind about several things and enabled change for the better. The client may also feel a sense of comfort and relief being able to share many aspects of their personal and professional life with the coach – which they are not able to talk about with anyone else. No matter how comfortable and easy it gets with a coach, a professional front must always be maintained between a coach and a client.

The coach can act as a sounding board, a guiding hand, but the boundaries should never get crossed by becoming over-familiar with the client or becoming a ‘friend’ to them, wherein the dynamics of the relationship change. The coach can be friendly , but not become an actual friend – at least within the duration of the coaching engagement. To maintain the professional dynamic is important for the sanctity of the work that needs to happen.

8. Trustworthy

A major component of coaching is to provide an environment of trust to the client to help them open up and feel safe in doing so. Asserting that everything that the client shares in the coaching session is absolutely confidential and taking care to stick to that promise is an absolutely necessary quality for a coach to possess. Being trustworthy is one of the most (maybe even the most) important characteristics of a good coach.

Building trust is continuous process in coaching and a coach can cultivate it in a multitude of ways including: demonstrating sincere curiosity & interest, reassuring confidentiality, building rapport through body language (mirroring, tonality, etc.), being 100 percent present, being non-judgmental, being reliable & accountable by being true to your words and following through on your actions, and more.

1. What defines a driven coach, and why is this quality important?

A driven coach is defined by their unwavering commitment to their own professional growth and the success of their clients. This quality is important because it fuels the coach’s motivation to continually improve, seek out new knowledge, and adapt to each client’s unique needs. Their drive ensures they persist through the challenges of coaching, innovate in their methods, and strive for excellence in their practice. This relentless pursuit of growth not only enhances their own skills but also significantly impacts the lives of those they coach, fostering transformations that lead to fulfilling outcomes.

2. How does being non-judgmental contribute to a coach’s effectiveness?

Being non-judgmental contributes to a coach’s effectiveness by creating a safe and open environment where clients feel valued and understood. This quality encourages clients to express their thoughts, beliefs, and emotions without fear of criticism or dismissal. When coaches listen with an open mind, they can better understand the client’s perspective and tailor their guidance to suit the client’s individual journey. This fosters a strong coach-client partnership grounded in trust, which is essential for facilitating meaningful change and progress.

3. Why is compassion considered a crucial quality for good coaching?

Compassion is considered a crucial quality for good coaching because it enables coaches to connect with their clients on a deeper emotional level, demonstrating understanding and empathy for their situations. This emotional connection is vital for building trust and rapport, which are foundational elements of a productive coaching relationship. Compassionate coaches can provide the support and encouragement needed to navigate the challenges and setbacks that often accompany personal and professional growth, making the coaching journey a more supportive and enriching experience.

4. In what ways does curiosity enhance a coach’s ability to support their clients?

Curiosity enhances a coach’s ability to support their clients by fostering a mindset of exploration and discovery. A curious coach asks open-ended questions, actively listens to their client’s responses, and seeks to understand their perspective without making assumptions. This approach encourages clients to reflect deeply on their experiences and challenges, leading to self-discovery and personal insights. Curiosity also keeps the coach engaged and adaptable, ready to explore new strategies and solutions that align with the client’s evolving goals and needs.

5. How does an observant coach improve the coaching experience?

An observant coach improves the coaching experience by paying close attention to both verbal and non-verbal cues, which can reveal underlying emotions, beliefs, and contradictions that the client may not be consciously aware of. By noticing subtle changes in body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions, a coach can gain deeper insights into the client’s internal state and tailor their approach to address the client’s true needs and concerns. This level of attentiveness leads to more meaningful and impactful coaching sessions, as the coach can facilitate discussions and interventions that resonate on a personal level.

6. What role does authenticity play in building a coach-client relationship?

Authenticity plays a pivotal role in building a coach-client relationship by establishing a foundation of trust and mutual respect. When coaches are genuine in their interactions, openly sharing their own experiences and acknowledging their limitations, clients are more likely to feel comfortable and secure in the relationship. This transparency fosters an environment where clients can be open and honest in return, enhancing the effectiveness of the coaching process. Authenticity ensures that the relationship is based on real understanding and connection, which are critical for achieving lasting change.

7. Why must a coach maintain professionalism in their practice?

Maintaining professionalism in coaching practice is essential because it sets boundaries that protect both the coach and the client. It ensures that the relationship stays focused on the client’s growth and development, without personal biases or emotional entanglements interfering with the coaching objectives. Professionalism includes respecting confidentiality, maintaining clear communication, and upholding ethical standards, all of which contribute to a safe and respectful coaching environment. It allows the coaching process to be effective and focused, ensuring that the client’s goals and well-being remain the top priority.

8. How does trustworthiness establish a safe coaching environment?

Trustworthiness establishes a safe coaching environment by ensuring that clients feel secure in sharing their thoughts, feelings, and experiences without fear of judgment or breach of confidentiality. When a coach is seen as reliable and consistent in their actions and commitments, it builds a strong foundation of trust. This trust is crucial for creating a space where clients are willing to be vulnerable and engage in the deep, sometimes challenging work required for personal growth. A trustworthy coach fosters a sense of safety and support, making it possible for clients to explore their limits and achieve meaningful transformation.

About Simply.Coach

Simply.Coach is an enterprise-grade coaching software designed to be used by individual coaches and coaching businesses. Trusted by ICF-accredited and EMCC-credentialed coaches worldwide, Simply.Coach is on a mission to elevate the experience and process of coaching with technology-led tools and solutions.

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Ipsita Nayak

Content Marketing Manager @Simply.Coach

Ipsita Nayak is a full-time writer-editor-content strategist and a part-time NLP coach & yoga teacher. She believes conventions are overrated, has a disproportionate need for solo time over social time, and loves a good mix of sci-fi and trashy TV in her free time!

Coaching Experience in Sport Essay

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Introduction

In sports, coaching has been fundamental tool managers use to enhance the development of team members. Each coach has given principles and ethics they utilize to achieve the desired outcome. Before commencing the training practices, the experienced must identify key areas that require improvement. Upon identifying the personal needs of a player, the manager formulates the most appropriate techniques that will enable the respective players to gain the necessary professional development. Since teams consist of many individuals, the coaches usually employ various coaching styles, which include democratic, autocratic, and holistic, based on the objective intended to be achieved. Despite the number of players in the team, sports managers ensure each person is respected and treated with the utmost respect. The aim is to make sure the possible ego of the coach remains invisible and the interest of the players is met. The aspect of coaching is an all-around practice that requires the leaders to have different abilities, including motivating, advising, analyzing, and coordinating relevant training programs to meet the development needs of all players in the team.

My Experience with Rugby Team Coaches

At the age of 15 when I was in grade 10, I developed an interest in playing rugby. The school head coach was one of the educators with whom I interacted frequently during class lessons. Following my physical fitness and the urge to enroll in the team, I applied for the chance to join division three of the rugby team. During this time, I had limited skills and competencies required to be an excellent player. In the category, several other individuals did not have the relevant abilities as well. The school had three coaches responsible for the training and development of each of the teams. After some duration and subsequent tests, I managed to break through to division two and then to the main team where I became one of the recognized players. The success of the processes was significantly influenced by the various head coaches. They undertook different roles and commitments to ensure they impart relevant skills to enhance the professional growth of each player. The managers used various coaching techniques that allowed the development to be easier and more achievable.

Coaching Process

Since coaching entails a series of events, the leaders ensure that the players derive maximum professional development to enhance their practices. Generally, it was the duty of the head coach to ensure all the multi-disciplinary approaches are utilized together to facilitate effective engagement. Before setting the goals and objectives for the team, the frontrunner used to take a close observation of each player, especially during training sessions (Sullivan et al., 2021). Afterward, the individual team member was contacted by the trainers to discuss the possible areas that require immediate adjustments. The coaching process was deeply dependent on the philosophy and coaching ethics used in the team.

Coaching Philosophy

The team’s head coach had an outstanding coaching philosophy that applied to the whole training program. According to the manager’s idea, he believed that knowledge and skills are transferable from one person to the other (Cahill, 2022). Based on this perspective, the frontrunner maintained that through effective coaching practices, using appropriate and reliable approaches each player has the potential to improve their talents in sports. Furthermore, the manager acknowledged that through playing games, there is strong character development and confidence which is essential for the growth of an individual. The key components of the philosophy included the objective, the technique used to coach players, and the principles applied.

Before commencing the training session, the coach used to come up with an already prepared objective that the team must aim towards. The trainer first communicates his purpose and expectations once the practice is over. To warrant that the training program is conducted effectively, the manager ensures the atmosphere is positive and accommodating for all the players and the support staff. The approach proved effective because each team member understood the primary reason for the coaching exercise, and thus they worked accordingly towards achieving them. For instance, when engaging in physical activities, the coach always alerted players before preparing them psychologically. The technique proved vital in developing the required attitude for participating in the game. Therefore, it was important to set a clear objective and make it known to the players to facilitate their concentration and commitment to professional development.

To have an effective coaching process, several principles must be applied to facilitate engagement. By definition, sports coaching is known as the training that focuses on individual improvement and that of the whole team members while considering both specific and general performances. Some key principles the rugby coach applies are an emphasis on behaviors, proper order during the training session, rapid correction and instructions, provision of immediate feedback, and use of questions and clarifications. While relying heavily on the stated values, the manager made it easier to handle any possible challenge that could occur to team members. Players as well adapted to the approach, which further simplified the process and created harmony and deep understanding amongst the trainees and the staff members.

Coaching Ethics

Sports attract the interest of individuals from different cultural backgrounds and have varied perspectives. To coordinate and maintain an effective team, coaching morals is a necessary tool. During my time with the school rugby team, the head coach was always applauded, following the respect he accorded the players and the supporting staff. The manager understood that people have different values and beliefs. Furthermore, he considered role differences, ethnicity, age, language, sexual orientation, origin, and socioeconomic status to ensure each player is not treated differently from the others based on attributes (Sabzi et al., 2022). The team reported no case of prejudice and immoral conduct portrayed by the head coach and the assistant. He valued the rights and dignity of all participants, which made the training environment welcoming and accommodating for the various players. In addition, the management set several rules that guide participants’ behaviors in and out of the training sessions. Most of the time, the team was encouraged to respect and uphold practices that embrace moral conduct. For instance, performers were frequently advised to take responsibility, remain fair and apply integrity in every situation they might encounter.

My Experience as a Sports Coach

I have been involved in coaching activities engaging people from different groups, ages, clubs, and gender. I have been exposed to the practice for a couple of years, leading to significant experience in the field. Currently, I am training girls below the age of 16 years to touch rugby and contact rugby as well. In addition, I am the chief instructor for Kids Outdoor Adventure Company, where I coach boys and girls between the ages of 6 to 12 years. Furthermore, I am a certified personal trainer and a CrossFit coach. The mentioned involvements have given me relevant encounters in coaching practices. Since I have been dealing with different individuals, I opted to use the long-term athlete development model as a tool to enhance the ability to improve specific and general improvements among the groups I train.

Long-Term Athlete Development

The long-term athlete development (LTAD) model is a framework created to enhance the quality of physical activity in sports and to allow the players to fully realize their potential and possible ways of exploring them effectively. Coaching is a dynamic program that requires the coach to constantly keep formulating and implementing new training methods that best suit the needs of the performers being trained (Costa et al., 2021). To ensure all my players in their respective groups attain their potential, I employed the LTAD approach to establish the required solution. By definition, LTAD is a properly planned and progressive system that assists in developing individual players. The tool is essential, especially for coaching juniors who are still undergoing various body developments. I used the LTAD to know what to do at any stage of performers’ advancement to enhance their engagement in healthy physical activities. It further provides solutions for handling the players with the talent and drives to succeed in games.

In general, LTAD aims to provide what seems best for the team throughout the training period. It promotes a positive experience for the participants, limiting possible shortcomings that might hinder the engagement of players in physical activities. I adopted the use of the LTAD model because it is applicable in all stages, right from childhood to adulthood. Being that I am dealing with teenagers and some adults, the system provides a proper approach to handling each group effectively. The LTAD framework has seven critical stages that give the coach a platform to guide the training, participation, and recovery process during the involvement (Costa et al., 2021). LTAD is useful since it recognizes involvement and performance-oriented tracks in sports. In addition, the model encompasses fun-based physical literacy necessary for teams aged between 6 to 12 years. The key phases that are making coaching practices include active start, fundamentals, learn to train, train to train, train to compete, training to win, and active for life.

Before applying the LTAD model, as a coach, I considered several factors to ensure that participation, training, and competition were successful. The aspects include physical literacy, specialization, trainability, age, emotional development, periodization, competition, system alignment, excellent task time, and continuous improvement. Each of the mentioned elements significantly benefits the participants and ensures they advance their specific and general physical, intellectual, and mental development.

Periodization Planning

When conducting training activities, I have depended on periodization planning to ensure I deliver the services on time. Since the coaching process entails different activities, it is important to structure and formulates the right period for each training exercise. In most cases, I break the coaching activities into components to be done in sessions, days, and weeks. The approach enables me to be situation specific whereby I bring the required training to enhance the necessary improvement in the team.

Goal Setting

Generally, the participants have different abilities and potentials in the team. To ensure all the performers are engaged and improve their professional development, I create objectives that cover process, performance, and outcome. This is because coaching is a sequential program geared towards unlocking the potential of each player in the team (Cronin et al., 2022). When making developing the goals, I ensure they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. The technique has made it easier to impart new skills to the participants in an effective manner.

Coaching Roles and Responsibilities

Coaching is an involving practice that comes with several responsibilities to be performed. Generally, team managers are responsible for planning, organizing, and providing different sports programs to enhance the physical fitness of the team members (Cho et al., 2021). Some of the key roles I play include teaching performers various relevant skills to enhance their abilities in rugby. Similarly, I train different tactics and techniques that players can use during competition. Apart from focusing on physical development, I frequently monitor and promote the overall performance by encouraging the individual participant and issuing positive feedback. In addition, I evaluate and identify the strengths and weaknesses of team members to plan for needed adjustments. Since health is a concern when it comes to sports, I advise the performers and their parents on ways to maintain a good lifestyle throughout their life. Other activities are creating appropriate training programs that suit the demands of players and other support staff.

Coaching Styles

As a coach, the most fundamental aspect of coaching is the style being used. When the approach is ineffective, the overall outcome of the involvement will be insignificant. It is necessary to apply the style that best tackles various cultures and behaviors that might prevent the development of each player (Samson & Bakinde, 2021). I have been using the democratic style to enhance the training of teams. The technique is aimed at making the athletes contribute to every aspect of the training program (Kim et al., 2021). Since I deal with people from different age groups, I usually apply the method to individuals aged 12 and above because they understand what is appropriate for them. The coaching technique enables performers to focus on the objectives outlined by the training program which is essential for their physical development.

Teaching Skills

Coaching a team focuses on skill development and each performer is required to gain the necessary abilities that improve their talents. I subject the players to six levels of training to enhance their competencies in sports. Initially, the player learns the relevant skill by engaging in the learning process (Newman et al., 2021). It is then followed by the aspect of skill mastery through a continuous repeat of the technique. The third phase encompasses adding speed to the already known skill to enhance faster execution. The next step is adding fatigue to enable the participants to understand the impact of tiredness on their accuracy and quality. The fifth stage involves adding pressure to make sure the player can apply their abilities when under pressure. The last level entails decision-making; the performer must be able to make the right decision fast during the execution process.

Coaching is an effective process that allows coaches to teach the players relevant skills to enhance their professional development. It is fundamental for the trainers to understand the needs of each performer before planning and structuring the required training programs. Coaching philosophies and the whole process is vital in ensuring the expected outcome is achieved. By applying the LTAD model, it is easier for the coach to provide proper training for the participants while considering various factors such as age, trainability, and physical literacy. In addition, the coaching style promotes the ability of trainees to execute the instructions. The democratic approach has proved player-centered thus making them remain active.

Cahill, G. (2022). Coaching philosophy:” Why we do things the way we do?” ITF Coaching & Sport Science Review , 30 (86), 7-9.

Cho, H., Kim, S., & Lee, Y. H. (2021). Sport coaches’ positive emotions, task performance, and well-being: The mediating role of work satisfaction. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching , 16 (6), 1247-1258.

Costa, M. J., Marinho, D. A., Santos, C. C., Quinta-Nova, L., Costa, A. M., Silva, A. J., & Barbosa, T. M. (2021). The coaches’ perceptions and experience implementing a long-term athletic development model in competitive swimming. Frontiers in Psychology , 1626.

Cronin, L., Ellison, P., Allen, J., Huntley, E., Johnson, L., Kosteli, M. C., Hollis, A., & Marchant, D. (2022). A self-determination theory based investigation of life skills development in youth sport. Journal of Sports Sciences , 40 (8), 886-898.

Kim, S., Park, S., Love, A., & Pang, T. C. (2021). Coaching style, sport enjoyment, and intent to continue participation among artistic swimmers. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching , 16 (3), 477-489.

Newman, T., Black, S., Santos, F., Jefka, B., & Brennan, N. (2021). Coaching the development and transfer of life skills: A scoping review of facilitative coaching practices in youth sports. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology , 1-38.

Sabzi, A. H., Golzadeh, F., Aghazadeh, A., & Heidarian Baei, E. (2022). Explaining of correlational model of organizational ethical culture with professional ethics in sport coaches. Sport Psychology Studies (ie, mutaleat ravanshenasi varzeshi) , 11 (39), 195-218. Web.

Samson, A. B., & Bakinde, S. T. (2021). Relationship between Coaches’ Leadership Style and Athletes’ Performance in Kwara State Sports Council. THE SKY-International Journal of Physical Education and Sports Sciences (IJPESS) , 5 (1), 91-104. Web.

Sullivan, M. O., Woods, C. T., Vaughan, J., & Davids, K. (2021). Towards a contemporary player learning in development framework for sports practitioners. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching , 16 (5), 1214-1222.

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Bibliography

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The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

How to Write a Descriptive Essay on an Influential Person in Your Life

How to Write a Speech About Someone I Admire

A descriptive essay on an influential person can be about someone who has had a positive or negative impact on your life. This person can be a teacher, a coach, a family member, a friend, an employer, a political figure, a historical figure or even a fictional character. The key element of writing this type of essay is to reflect on how and why the person has influenced you.

Focus Your Essay

As in any essay, when writing about an influential person in your life you should include a thesis statement. In this case, the thesis statement declares how or why this person has influenced you life. For example, if writing about your soccer coach, you may write, "Through his advice and the example of his character, my soccer coach has inspired me to never be lazy, to get back up after a fall, and to be a confident leader." The thesis statement gives you, the writer, a focus and direction so that you are not only describing a person, but exploring the causes and effects of that person's impact on you.

Start With an Anecdote

Instead of starting the essay with an explicit physical or personal description of the person, you can more meaningfully reveal who the individual is by sharing a personal story. For example, if you are writing about your sibling, you can begin the essay with a specific memory of a moment or experience you shared in which your relationship or your sibling's strengths and weaknesses are revealed through actions. This is an engaging way to entertain the reader while imparting valuable information about the person you are describing.

Describe the Person

At some point in the descriptive essay, you need to describe the influential person. This description -- which can include physical attributes, biographical information and personality traits -- should be related with concrete language. The description should paint a vivid picture of all that matters about the person. The writer needs to be judicious in which descriptive material she selects for inclusion in the essay; the information should be determined by the overall point being made in the essay. For example, if your thesis statement is about how Abraham Lincoln is your hero because of all his accomplishments relative to the social and political conditions of the time, descriptions of his favorite hobbies or hair color may not be pertinent. The description serves to give a deeper and more vivid portrait of the influential person, but should ultimately serve the higher cause of the thesis statement and the effect of the person on the writer.

Describe Your Relationship

When writing about an influential person, you have to talk not just about the person, but also about the reason the person has made an impact on your life; this means you have to talk about yourself, what specific things you have learned from this person, and how those lessons affect you today. An important strategy for successfully describing the relationship between the person and the writer is to give specific examples. For example, don't just say, "my grandmother is generous"; give specific examples of her generosity: "she always makes sure everyone is fed before eating," or "she sold her jewelry to help pay for a car so that I could drive to work." These specific examples are more powerful and evoke more empathy than general descriptive words such as "kind" or "generous."

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Soheila Battaglia is a published and award-winning author and filmmaker. She holds an MA in literary cultures from New York University and a BA in ethnic studies from UC Berkeley. She is a college professor of literature and composition.

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Knowledge Base
How to write a descriptive essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Descriptive Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

A descriptive essay gives a vivid, detailed description of something—generally a place or object, but possibly something more abstract like an emotion. This type of essay , like the narrative essay , is more creative than most academic writing .

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Descriptive essay topics, tips for writing descriptively, descriptive essay example, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about descriptive essays.

When you are assigned a descriptive essay, you’ll normally be given a specific prompt or choice of prompts. They will often ask you to describe something from your own experience.

Describe a place you love to spend time in.
Describe an object that has sentimental value for you.

You might also be asked to describe something outside your own experience, in which case you’ll have to use your imagination.

Describe the experience of a soldier in the trenches of World War I.
Describe what it might be like to live on another planet.

Sometimes you’ll be asked to describe something more abstract, like an emotion.

If you’re not given a specific prompt, try to think of something you feel confident describing in detail. Think of objects and places you know well, that provoke specific feelings or sensations, and that you can describe in an interesting way.

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The key to writing an effective descriptive essay is to find ways of bringing your subject to life for the reader. You’re not limited to providing a literal description as you would be in more formal essay types.

Make use of figurative language, sensory details, and strong word choices to create a memorable description.

Use figurative language

Figurative language consists of devices like metaphor and simile that use words in non-literal ways to create a memorable effect. This is essential in a descriptive essay; it’s what gives your writing its creative edge and makes your description unique.

Take the following description of a park.

This tells us something about the place, but it’s a bit too literal and not likely to be memorable.

If we want to make the description more likely to stick in the reader’s mind, we can use some figurative language.

Here we have used a simile to compare the park to a face and the trees to facial hair. This is memorable because it’s not what the reader expects; it makes them look at the park from a different angle.

You don’t have to fill every sentence with figurative language, but using these devices in an original way at various points throughout your essay will keep the reader engaged and convey your unique perspective on your subject.

Use your senses

Another key aspect of descriptive writing is the use of sensory details. This means referring not only to what something looks like, but also to smell, sound, touch, and taste.

Obviously not all senses will apply to every subject, but it’s always a good idea to explore what’s interesting about your subject beyond just what it looks like.

Even when your subject is more abstract, you might find a way to incorporate the senses more metaphorically, as in this descriptive essay about fear.

Choose the right words

Writing descriptively involves choosing your words carefully. The use of effective adjectives is important, but so is your choice of adverbs , verbs , and even nouns.

It’s easy to end up using clichéd phrases—“cold as ice,” “free as a bird”—but try to reflect further and make more precise, original word choices. Clichés provide conventional ways of describing things, but they don’t tell the reader anything about your unique perspective on what you’re describing.

Try looking over your sentences to find places where a different word would convey your impression more precisely or vividly. Using a thesaurus can help you find alternative word choices.

My cat runs across the garden quickly and jumps onto the fence to watch it from above.
My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above.

However, exercise care in your choices; don’t just look for the most impressive-looking synonym you can find for every word. Overuse of a thesaurus can result in ridiculous sentences like this one:

My feline perambulates the allotment proficiently and capers atop the palisade to regard it from aloft.

An example of a short descriptive essay, written in response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how a descriptive essay works.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

If you’re not given a specific prompt for your descriptive essay , think about places and objects you know well, that you can think of interesting ways to describe, or that have strong personal significance for you.

The best kind of object for a descriptive essay is one specific enough that you can describe its particular features in detail—don’t choose something too vague or general.

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Descriptive Essays

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What is a descriptive essay?

The descriptive essay is a genre of essay that asks the student to describe something—object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc. This genre encourages the student’s ability to create a written account of a particular experience. What is more, this genre allows for a great deal of artistic freedom (the goal of which is to paint an image that is vivid and moving in the mind of the reader).

One might benefit from keeping in mind this simple maxim: If the reader is unable to clearly form an impression of the thing that you are describing, try, try again!

Here are some guidelines for writing a descriptive essay.

Take time to brainstorm

If your instructor asks you to describe your favorite food, make sure that you jot down some ideas before you begin describing it. For instance, if you choose pizza, you might start by writing down a few words: sauce, cheese, crust, pepperoni, sausage, spices, hot, melted, etc. Once you have written down some words, you can begin by compiling descriptive lists for each one.

Use clear and concise language.

This means that words are chosen carefully, particularly for their relevancy in relation to that which you are intending to describe.

Choose vivid language.

Why use horse when you can choose stallion ? Why not use tempestuous instead of violent ? Or why not miserly in place of cheap ? Such choices form a firmer image in the mind of the reader and often times offer nuanced meanings that serve better one’s purpose.

Use your senses!

Remember, if you are describing something, you need to be appealing to the senses of the reader. Explain how the thing smelled, felt, sounded, tasted, or looked. Embellish the moment with senses.

What were you thinking?!

If you can describe emotions or feelings related to your topic, you will connect with the reader on a deeper level. Many have felt crushing loss in their lives, or ecstatic joy, or mild complacency. Tap into this emotional reservoir in order to achieve your full descriptive potential.

Leave the reader with a clear impression.

One of your goals is to evoke a strong sense of familiarity and appreciation in the reader. If your reader can walk away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are on your way to writing effective descriptive essays.

Be organized!

It is easy to fall into an incoherent rambling of emotions and senses when writing a descriptive essay. However, you must strive to present an organized and logical description if the reader is to come away from the essay with a cogent sense of what it is you are attempting to describe.

What is a Descriptive Essay? How to Write It (with Examples)

A descriptive essay is a type of creative writing that uses specific language to depict a person, object, experience, or event. The idea is to use illustrative language to show readers what the writer wants to convey – it could be as simple as a peaceful view from the top of a hill or as horrific as living in a war zone. By using descriptive language, authors can evoke a mental image in the readers’ minds, engaging readers and leaving a lasting impression, instead of just providing a play-by-play narrative.

Note that a description and descriptive essay are not the same thing. A descriptive essay typically consists of five or more well-written paragraphs with vivid imagery that can help readers visualize the content, as opposed to a description, which is typically one or more plain paragraphs with no particular structure or appeal. If you are still unsure about how to write a compelling descriptive essay, continue reading!

What is a descriptive essay, types of descriptive essay topics.

Characteristics of descriptive essays

How to write a descriptive essay using a structured outline

Frequently asked questions.

A simple descriptive essay definition is that it is a piece of writing that gives a thorough and vivid description of an object, person, experience, or situation. It is sometimes focused more on the emotional aspect of the topic rather than the specifics. The author’s intention when writing a descriptive essay is to help readers visualize the subject at hand. Generally, students are asked to write a descriptive essay to test their ability to recreate a rich experience with artistic flair. Here are a few key points to consider when you begin writing these.

Look for a fascinating subject

You might be assigned a topic for your descriptive essay, but if not, you must think of a subject that interests you and about which you know enough facts. It might be about an emotion, place, event, or situation that you might have experienced.

Acquire specific details about the topic

The next task is to collect relevant information about the topic of your choice. You should focus on including details that make the descriptive essay stand out and have a long-lasting impression on the readers. To put it simply, your aim is to make the reader feel as though they were a part of the experience in the first place, rather than merely describing the subject.

Be playful with your writing

To make the descriptive essay memorable, use figurative writing and imagery to lay emphasis on the specific aspect of the topic. The goal is to make sure that the reader experiences the content visually, so it must be captivating and colorful. Generally speaking, “don’t tell, show”! This can be accomplished by choosing phrases that evoke strong emotions and engage a variety of senses. Making use of metaphors and similes will enable you to compare different things. We will learn about them in the upcoming sections.

Capture all the different senses

Unlike other academic articles, descriptive essay writing uses sensory elements in addition to the main idea. In this type of essay writing, the topic is described by using sensory details such as smell, taste, feel, and touch. Example “ Mahira feels most at home when the lavender scent fills her senses as she lays on her bed after a long, tiring day at work . As the candle melts , so do her worries” . It is crucial to provide sensory details to make the character more nuanced and build intrigue to keep the reader hooked. Metaphors can also be employed to explain abstract concepts; for instance, “ A small act of kindness creates ripples that transcend oceans .” Here the writer used a metaphor to convey the emotion that even the smallest act of kindness can have a larger impact.

Maintain harmony between flavor and flow

The descriptive essay format is one that can be customized according to the topic. However, like other types of essays, it must have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The number of body paragraphs can vary depending on the topic and available information.

It is crucial to remember that a descriptive essay should have a specific topic and goal, such as sharing personal experiences or expressing emotions like the satisfaction of a good meal. This is accomplished by employing exact language, imagery, and figurative language to illustrate concrete features. These language devices allow the writer to craft a descriptive essay that effectively transmits a particular mood, feeling, or incident to readers while also conjuring up strong mental imagery. A descriptive essay may be creative, or it may be based on the author’s own experiences. Below is a description of a few descriptive essay examples that fit into these categories.

Personal descriptive essay example

A personal essay can look like a descriptive account of your favorite activity, a place in your neighborhood, or an object that you value. Example: “ As I step out of the front door, the crisp morning air greets me with a gentle embrace; the big chestnut tree in front, sways in the wind as if saying hello to me. The world unfolds in a symphony of awakening colors, promising a day filled with untold possibilities that make me feel alive and grateful to be born again”.

Imaginative descriptive essay example

You may occasionally be required to write descriptive essays based on your imagination or on subjects unrelated to your own experiences. The prompts for these kinds of creative essays could be to describe the experience of someone going through heartbreak or to write about a day in the life of a barista. Imaginative descriptive essays also allow you to describe different emotions. Example, the feelings a parent experiences on holding their child for the first time.

Characteristics of descriptive essay s

The aim of a descriptive essay is to provide a detailed and vivid description of a person, place, object, event, or experience. The main goal is to create a sensory experience for the reader. Through a descriptive essay, the reader may be able to experience foods, locations, activities, or feelings that they might not otherwise be able to. Additionally, it gives the writer a way to relate to the readers by sharing a personal story. The following is a list of the essential elements of a descriptive essay:

Sensory details
Clear, succinct language
Organized structure
Thesis statement
Appeal to emotion

How to write a descriptive essay, with examples

Writing an engaging descriptive essay is all about bringing the subject matter to life for the reader so they can experience it with their senses—smells, tastes, and textures. The upside of writing a descriptive essay is you don’t have to stick to the confinements of formal essay writing, rather you are free to use a figurative language, with sensory details, and clever word choices that can breathe life to your descriptive essay. Let’s take a closer look at how you can use these components to develop a descriptive essay that will stand out, using examples.

Figurative language

Have you ever heard the expression “shooting for the stars”? It refers to pushing someone to strive higher or establish lofty goals, but it does not actually mean shooting for the stars. This is an example of using figurative language for conveying strong motivational emotions. In a descriptive essay, figurative language is employed to grab attention and emphasize points by creatively drawing comparisons and exaggerations. But why should descriptive essays use metaphorical language? One it adds to the topic’s interest and humor; two, it facilitates the reader’s increased connection to the subject.

These are the five most often used figurative language techniques: personification, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, and allusion.

Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that is used to compare two things while emphasizing and enhancing the description using terms such as “like or as.”

Example: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving – Albert Einstein

Metaphor: A metaphor are also used to draw similarities, but without using direct or literal comparisons like done in similes.

Example: Books are the mirrors of the soul – Virginia Woolf, Between the acts

Personification: This is the process of giving nonhuman or abstract objects human traits. Any human quality, including an emotional component, a physical attribute, or an action, can be personified.

Example: Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world – Louis Pasteur

Hyperbole: This is an extreme form of exaggeration, frequently impractical, and usually employed to emphasize a point or idea. It gives the character more nuance and complexity.

Example: The force will be with you, always – Star Wars

Allusion: This is when you reference a person, work, or event without specifically mentioning them; this leaves room for the reader’s creativity.

Example: In the text below, Robert Frost uses the biblical Garden of Eden as an example to highlight the idea that nothing, not even paradise, endures forever.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay

– Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost (1923)

Descriptive essays need a combination of figurative language and strong sensory details to make the essay more memorable. This is when authors describe the subject matter employing senses like smell, sound, touch, and taste so that the reader can relate to it better.

Example of a sensory-based descriptive essay: The earthy fragrance of freshly roasted chestnuts and the sight of bright pink, red, orange fallen leaves on the street reminded her that winter was around the corner.

Word choice

Word choice is everything in a descriptive essay. For the description to be enchanting, it is essential to utilize the right adjectives and to carefully consider the verbs, nouns, and adverbs. Use unusual terms and phrases that offer a new viewpoint on your topic matter instead of overusing clichés like “fast as the wind” or “lost track of time,” which can make your descriptive essay seem uninteresting and unoriginal.

See the following examples:

Bad word choice: I was so happy because the sunset was really cool.

Good word choice: I experienced immense joy as the sunset captivated me with its remarkable colors and breathtaking beauty.

Descriptive essay format and outline

Descriptive essay writing does not have to be disorganized, it is advisable to use a structured format to organize your thoughts and ensure coherent flow in your writing. Here is a list of components that should be a part of your descriptive essay outline:

Introduction
Opening/hook sentence
Topic sentence
Body paragraphs
Concrete details
Clincher statement

Introduction:

Hook: An opening statement that captures attention while introducing the subject.
Background: Includes a brief overview of the topic the descriptive essay is based on.
Thesis statement: Clearly states the main point or purpose of the descriptive essay.

Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should have

Topic sentence: Introduce the first aspect or feature you will describe. It informs the reader about what is coming next.
Sensory details: Use emphatic language to appeal to the reader’s senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell).
Concrete details: These are actual details needed to understand the context of the descriptive essay.
Supporting details: Include relevant information or examples to improve the description.

Conclusion:

Summarize key points: Here you revisit the main features or aspects of the subject.
Restate thesis statement: Reinforce the central impression or emotion.
Clincher statement: Conclude with a statement that summarizes the entire essay and serve as the last words with a powerful message.

Revision and editing:

Go over your essay to make sure it is coherent, clear, and consistent.
Check for logical paragraph transitions by proofreading the content.
Examine text to ensure correct grammar, punctuation, and style.
Use the thesaurus or AI paraphrasing tools to find the right words.

A descriptive essay often consists of three body paragraphs or more, an introduction that concludes with a thesis statement, and a conclusion that summarizes the subject and leaves a lasting impression on readers.

A descriptive essay’s primary goal is to captivate the reader by writing a thorough and vivid explanation of the subject matter, while appealing to their various senses. A list of additional goals is as follows: – Spark feeling and imagination – Create a vivid experience – Paint a mental picture – Pique curiosity – Convey a mood or atmosphere – Highlight specific details

Although they both fall within the creative writing category, narrative essays and descriptive essays have different storytelling focuses. While the main goal of a narrative essay is to tell a story based on a real-life experience or a made-up event, the main goal of a descriptive essay is to vividly describe a person, location, event, or emotion.

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

This could be something as simple as your favorite flavor of ice cream or as complicated as the politics of 13th century Vienna. Different than a simple description, a descriptive essay allows the writer to really show off both their imagination as well as their writing skills.

What is a Descriptive Essay?

A descriptive essay is a type of academic writing that asks the writer to fully describe a place, person, situation, event, or thing. They can be simple or they can be very complex depending on the subject matter and audience written for. These types of essays train a writer’s ability to express themselves accurately as well as build compelling sentences and arguments.

Descriptive Essay Ideas

There is no exhaustive list of things that can be described, but these are some of the most common things you may be asked to write about.

A Location - The goal of writing about a place is to make the reader feel as if they are there. Words, similes, and metaphors that ignite the reader’s imagination are essential. Try and immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of the place you are describing. Examples could be a city, a view, a particular building like your house, etc.

A Time Period - Similar to writing about a location, the goal is to make the reader lose themselves in the time you are describing. This requires great research to be able to describe physical characteristics as authentically and as well as possible. This could include how you felt a year ago, an ancient time period, or the future.

An Event - The goal of describing an event is to explain a series of interesting circumstances. Typical storytelling elements like describing the plot, setting, and characters are useful, but make sure you focus on the chain of events.

An Emotion - The goal of describing an emotion is to make the reader feel the sentiments of the character you are describing. Metaphors and similes are very useful when trying to evoke an emotion in a reader along with physical descriptions that express the emotion.

A Person - The goal of writing about a person is to make the reader understand something about that person. This includes physical descriptions of what they look like, what kind of clothing they wear, a sense of the physical presence along with their profession, as well as how they behave.

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Descriptive Essay Outline and Structure

Though a descriptive type of essay is quite different from a typical academic paper, it still follows a classic 5 paragraph format. Always follow any directions though, sometimes you may need more or fewer body paragraphs. This is a general structure you should keep in mind for this type of essay.

Introduction

Introduction/background information

Body Paragraphs

Topic Sentence
Sensory Information
Physical Descriptions
Transition Sentence
Summary of the main points
Restate the thesis

An outline is always a good idea for any kind of writing, but it is particularly useful for this type of essay because it collects your thoughts and makes sure your essay stays on track.

Introduction

Hook - The sting of salty water, the hypnotic crash of the waves, the breathtaking sunsets, the best vacation spot?
Background information - Everyone is different and everyone likes different types of things. When it comes to vacations though, there is a place that almost everyone enjoys.
Thesis - In my opinion, the beach is the best possible vacation spot because of the variety of ways one can enjoy it.

Body Paragraph 1

Topic Sentence - The beach has many kinds of natural beauty
Sensory information - The unlimited expanse of the ocean combined with glorious sunrises and sunsets.
Physical descriptions -The crunch of sand below your bare feet and the crash of waves on your body.
Transition sentence - There’s more than just natural beauty though, there are physical activities to enjoy as well

Body Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence - The beach has unlimited activities for physical enjoyment.
Sensory information - The thrill of battling with the ocean, the joy of falling on the sand, the wind streaming through your hair, and the pleasant tingling of the sun on bare skin.
Physical descriptions - Water sports like surfing, jet skiing, and the like allow you to exercise in one of the most fun ways possible. Not to mention sports like frisbee, volleyball, beach soccer, and more.
Transition sentence - If you just want to relax, the beach is perfect for that too!

Body Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence - The beach is ideal just to relax, destress, and take it easy.
Sensory information - To relax as you are massaged by either human hands or the sun is a pleasure. Lazing around might be frowned upon, but the beach is the ideal place to spend some time taking care of yourself and letting the stresses of the world melt away.
Physical description - Whether it’s reading a book, or enjoying a refreshing beverage with umbrellas in it, you can get taken care of on the beach. Building sandcastles, painting, and meditating are other activities easily and freely enjoyed.
Transition sentence - The beach has so much to offer.
Summary of the main points - Whether it’s nature, physical exercise, or simple relaxation, the beach can offer all of that and more.
Restate the thesis - That’s the main reason that a beach is the ideal vacation spot, it allows for diverse ways of having fun.
Closing statement/Clincher - Think about the last time you went to the beach, don’t you want to go again?

What is the Purpose of a Descriptive Essay?

It should leave the reader with a clear idea of the topic of the essay. The goal is to explain things in a comprehensive and interesting way so that the information stays with the reader. Let’s go into the details of how to accomplish this.

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Writing Process & Descriptive Essay Examples

It may seem challenging to write a successful essay of this type, but if you follow the advice below, it will be a breeze.

How to Start a Descriptive Essay

Making sure you choose the right topic is the first hurdle to cross. A topic for a descriptive essay is vital because it is the main subject you will be writing about. Spend at least 20 minutes brainstorming different topic ideas and make sure you choose a topic that you know well.

Next, create an outline to better structure your thoughts and figure out the pieces of information you need to find out more about. The more time you spend creating a well-researched outline, the better your endpaper is going to be, and you’ll end up spending less time on actually writing the paper. Now you can move on the writing the descriptive essay introduction.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay Thesis

A thesis statement is the main argument you are trying to make in your paper. It is the main point you are trying to describe. A good thesis statement for descriptive essay is particular without being too brief. It should include not only just what the topic is, but also mention why the topic is important.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

You can have as many body paragraphs as you think are necessary to achieve the goal of describing something clearly. This means you could have just one body paragraph, the standard three, or more.

Start every paragraph with a topic sentence that explains what the main purpose of the paragraph is. Next fill in sensory details, describing the emotions before moving on to describing the actual physical details. End each body paragraph with a transition sentence that helps each paragraph flow into the other. Not only does this make your writing stronger, but it also helps you create an immersive experience.

How to Write the Conclusion

Summarize the main points of your essay and make sure that you reiterate the thesis statement. This reminds people of the point of your essay and ensures that when writing, you don’t stray too far from the point.

Descriptive Essay Format

There are 3 main formats of citation types for essays. Though the most common one is MLA, it is possible that you may have to use APA or Chicago Style citations.

MLA stands for Modern Language Association and is used primarily for the arts and humanities. MLA uses in-text parenthetical citation in the format of (Author, Page). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the Works Cited page. The format of these entries is unique to MLA but is easy to make with a citation generator.

APA stands for American Psychological Association and is used mostly for the sciences and social sciences. APA uses in-text parenthetical citations in the format (Author, Date). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the References section

Chicago Style is used primarily for Business, History, and the Fine Arts. In-text citation can be either as footnotes or parenthetical citation in the format (Author, Date). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the Bibliography.

Most descriptive essays will follow the MLA style of citation, but if you need any more help, find a guide on Studyfy.com for more information about citation styles in general.

Descriptive Essay Topics

The topic is crucial, because all the research you do, and the entire paper, will specifically be about describing the topic. Here are some descriptive essay prompts to inspire you!

The person you’ve most admired in your life

A movie scene that made you feel strong emotions

The time period you would travel to if you had a time machine

Why a beach is better than the mountains for a vacation (or vice versa)

The taste of a drink when you are incredibly tired

An author that inspired you

Your favorite cuisine

The best place in the world to be by yourself

The best Christmas morning you’ve ever had

An accent that you really enjoy

A time when you wanted something so much it burned

Describe the day in the life of your favorite celebrity

The joy of escaping into a video game

What dancing means to you

A life philosophy you believe in

The feeling of holding a baby in our arms

The sound of crashing waves

Standing in front of a gorgeous view

A vacation that was meaningful

Why fireworks are magical

The first time you cosplayed

How it feels to listen to music that you hate

The best thing you have ever eaten in your life

What would it be like to live 100 years in the future

Why hearing people laugh is beautiful

A day in the life of your favorite animal

A strange superstition you believe in

The strangest person you’ve ever met

Your favorite tv show

Playing your favorite sport

What it’s like to be in love

Descriptive Essay Tips

Before we end, let’s go over some of the key points of information in this article.

Use figurative language including metaphors and similes
Use your senses
Choose appropriate words
Show don't tell
Focus on specific details
Spend time choosing the right topic
Create a detailed outline
Forget about the purpose of the essay
Submit your first draft
Make it too complicated
Ignore your audience
Ignore any directions

In addition to the information provided in this article, there are various resources available to help with your writing needs. If you are struggling to write your descriptive essay, you can turn to professional writers and editors for assistance. You may consider hiring a research paper writing service or seeking help from dissertation writers .

Additionally, if you need someone to " write my admission essay ", there are various options available. You can hire a writer for a custom writing service or seek help from online tutors and teachers. Furthermore, if you need to write a strong admission essay, there are services available that specialize in providing guidance and assistance with this type of writing.

It is important to note that before submitting any work, it should be proofread and edited thoroughly to ensure its quality. Studyfy offers a range of services to help with this, including professional proofreaders and editors who can check your work for grammatical errors and ensure that it meets academic standards.

In summary, there are various resources available to help with your writing needs, including professional writing services, proofreaders, and editors. By utilizing these resources and following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can write a successful descriptive essay that effectively conveys your ideas and engages your readers.If you are looking for the query " I need someone to write an essay for me ", Studyfy has got you covered

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Descriptive Essay: Your Guide to Writing an Effective One

A descriptive essay is one of the four main types of essays, alongside narrative, argumentative, and expository essays. Among these, descriptive essays can be particularly challenging because they demand a keen eye for detail and an appreciation for aesthetics. By vividly describing scenes and details, you engage your reader’s senses, making your essay memorable and engaging. In this guide, our essay writers will break down the writing process for you, offering step-by-step instructions, practical examples, and clear definitions to help you excel in your next assignment.

What is a Descriptive Essay?

Descriptive writing aims to vividly portray something through essays, helping readers visualize and feel the scene or object being described. Such essays draw on detailed descriptions to create a clear and impactful image that not only presents the subject but also evokes emotions and memories.

There are three main techniques used in descriptive writing: naming, detailing, and comparing .

Naming identifies the subject and its characteristics, answering questions like 'What is it?' and 'What features does it have?'

Detailing elaborates on these features, providing answers to detailed questions such as 'How many are there?' and 'What is its value?' Techniques like synesthesia and comparisons enhance these descriptions.

Comparing uses similes and metaphors to make descriptions more vivid, linking the subject to familiar concepts.

What Is the Purpose of a Descriptive Essay?

The purpose of a descriptive essay is multifaceted. Primarily, it allows writers to give readers a vivid impression of a person, place, or event, making the subject come alive through words. By using detailed descriptions, writers can help readers visualize settings and characters as if they were seeing them firsthand.

Additionally, descriptive essays can serve to clarify abstract ideas. By describing these concepts with concrete images and examples, writers make complex ideas easier to understand and more relatable to the reader.

Descriptive essays also aim to make information more memorable. When details are vivid, they are more likely to stick in the reader's mind, enhancing recall and engagement with the text.

Lastly, it can bolster an argument by providing concrete, detailed evidence that supports a point of view. This helps persuade the reader by making the argument more tangible and credible.

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Descriptive Essay Topics

When you're tasked with writing a descriptive essay, you'll usually get a prompt that asks you to describe something. These descriptive essay prompts allow you to explore different settings, time periods, and imaginative scenarios in your essays.

Personal Prompts:

Describe a favorite childhood memory.
Describe a treasured family heirloom.

Imaginative Prompts:

Describe a day in the life of a pirate.
Describe what it would be like to explore an underwater city.

Historical Prompts:

Describe the atmosphere of a bustling ancient marketplace.
Describe the experience of witnessing a significant moment in history, like the moon landing or the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Nature Prompts:

Describe the sights and sounds of a peaceful forest at dawn.
Describe the feeling of standing at the edge of a majestic waterfall.

Everyday Prompts:

Describe the chaos of a busy morning commute in a big city.
Describe the tranquility of a sunset picnic in the countryside.

If you need topic ideas for other essay genres, consult our guide on narrative essay topics .

How to Write a Descriptive Essay in 8 Steps

Now that you understand the essence and purpose of this type of essay let's explore some fundamental yet valuable tips for writing a descriptive essay.

Step 1: Select Your Topic

The first step in creating a captivating descriptive essay is choosing the right topic. Start by paying close attention to your surroundings.

Consider describing a person you know well in your life, like a sibling, a close friend, or a teacher who has made a significant impact on you.
Alternatively, you could focus on a specific place or object that holds sentimental value to you, such as a favorite vacation spot, a cherished childhood toy, or a meaningful piece of jewelry.
Another option is to explore a strong emotion that you have experienced, like excitement, nostalgia, or determination.

Avoid using overly technical or jargon-filled language in your topic selection. Instead, aim for simplicity and clarity to ensure that your chosen topic resonates with your audience and allows you to convey your unique perspective effectively.

Step 2: Gather Details

Once you've selected your topic for your descriptive essay, the next step is to gather details that will bring your chosen subject to life on the page. Start by closely observing your subject, whether it's a person, place, object, or emotion. Pay attention to its appearance, characteristics, and any unique features that stand out to you.

For example, if you've chosen to describe your childhood home, take note of its architectural style, color scheme, and any distinctive elements like a front porch or a cozy fireplace. Recall memories associated with the home, such as family gatherings or quiet moments spent reading in your favorite spot.

If your topic is a person, like a close friend or family member, observe their physical appearance, mannerisms, and personality traits. Consider the ways in which they interact with others and the impact they have on your life.

Step 3: Draft an Outline

When structuring your essay, you can organize your paragraphs from top to bottom or near to far, chronologically, or from general to specific. Here's a simple descriptive essay outline from our custom writers to guide you:

Section	Description
Introduction	Provide a brief overview of the topic. Present your thesis statement.
Body Paragraph 1	Describe aspect 1 of your topic. Provide supporting details and examples.
Body Paragraph 2	Describe aspect 2 of your topic. Provide supporting details and examples.
Body Paragraph 3	Describe aspect 3 of your topic. Provide supporting details and examples.
Conclusion	Summarize the main points discussed. Offer final thoughts or reflections on the topic.

Step 4: Develop a Thesis Statement

When developing your thesis statement, consider the main points or aspects of your subject that you want to highlight in your essay. Think about the emotions or impressions you want to evoke in the reader and tailor your thesis statement accordingly.

For example, if you're writing about your favorite childhood memory, your thesis statement could be: 'My summers spent at my grandparents' farm were filled with laughter, adventure, and a sense of belonging.'

Or, if you're describing a beautiful sunset, your thesis statement might be: 'The breathtaking colors and serene atmosphere of the sunset over the ocean evoke a sense of peace and wonder.'

Step 5: Craft the Introduction

Start your descriptive essay introduction by hooking the reader with an engaging opening sentence or anecdote related to your topic. This could be a vivid description, a thought-provoking question, or a surprising fact. For example:

Growing up on my grandparents' farm, each summer brought new adventures and unforgettable memories that still warm my heart to this day.

After hooking the reader, provide some background information or context for your topic. This could include brief details about the setting, time period, or significance of your subject. For instance:

Nestled in the rolling hills of the countryside, my grandparents' farm was a sanctuary of simple pleasures and cherished traditions.

Finally, end your introduction with your thesis statement, clearly stating the main point of your essay. This ties everything together and gives the reader a roadmap for what to expect in the rest of your essay.

Step 6: Compose the Body Paragraphs

Once you've crafted your introduction, it's time to compose the body paragraphs, where you delve into the details and descriptions that bring your topic to life.

Each body paragraph should focus on a specific aspect or detail of your topic, expanding upon the ideas presented in your thesis statement. Use vivid language, sensory details, and descriptive devices to paint a clear picture for the reader.

For example, if you're writing about summers spent at your grandparents' farm, you could dedicate one body paragraph to describing the sights and sounds of the farm:

The rolling fields stretched out before me, golden waves of wheat swaying gently in the breeze. The air was filled with the sweet scent of wildflowers, mingling with the earthy aroma of freshly turned soil.

In another body paragraph, you might explore the adventures and activities that filled your days:

From sunrise to sunset, there was never a dull moment on the farm. Whether we were exploring the woods, splashing in the creek, or helping with chores, each day brought new excitement and adventure.

Continue with additional body paragraphs, each focusing on a different aspect of your topic and providing rich, detailed descriptions. Be sure to vary your language and sentence structure to keep the reader engaged and interested.

Step 7: Conclude the Essay

The conclusion should bring together all the ideas presented in your essay. Avoid introducing any new information in the conclusion. Instead, focus on evaluating your thoughts and reflections on the topic. End with a strong final sentence that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

For example, if you were writing about summers spent at your grandparents' farm, your conclusion might reflect on the significance of those memories:

'As I reminisce about the summers spent amid the rustic charm of my grandparents' farm, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude for the simple pleasures and cherished moments that shaped my childhood. The laughter echoing through the fields, the adventures awaiting around every corner, and the sense of belonging that enveloped me there will forever hold a special place in my heart.'

Step 8: Refine Your Essay

Once you've finished writing your essay, it's time to refine it for clarity and impact. Start by reading your essay aloud to yourself. Listen for any sentences that sound awkward or unclear. Mark these sentences so you can revise them later.

You can also read your essay aloud to others and ask for their feedback. Invite friends, family members, teachers, or mentors to listen to your essay and share their thoughts. Ask them if there are any parts that are difficult to understand or if they have trouble picturing the subject you're describing.

Be receptive to constructive criticism and feedback. Use it as an opportunity to improve your essay and make it stronger. And if it sounds too demanding right now, you can buy cheap essay to sidestep the hassle and reclaim some much-needed free time.

Descriptive Essay Format

The standard format for a descriptive essay typically includes five paragraphs: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, you can also organize your essay into sections, allowing for flexibility in the length of the body paragraphs.

Introductory Paragraph: This paragraph sets the scene by describing where, when, and to whom the experience occurred. It should include descriptive words to capture the reader's attention.

First Body Paragraph: Here, the writer provides details that allow the reader to visualize the situation. Descriptive language is key in painting a clear picture for the reader.

Second Body Paragraph: More details are provided, with a focus on using descriptive adjectives. Figurative language, such as metaphor (e.g., describing the city as a 'jungle of concrete'), can enhance the imagery.

Third Body Paragraph: The writer continues to appeal to the reader's senses with visually descriptive words. Figurative language, like personification (e.g., describing the wind as a playful dancer), adds depth to the description.

Conclusion: The conclusion alludes to another sense, such as touch or sound, and uses strong words to signify closure. It ends with a powerful concluding sentence to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Descriptive Essay Examples

In this section, you'll discover essay examples that demonstrate how to captivate your readers' attention effectively. After exploring these examples, you might find yourself tempted to ask, 'Can someone do my homework for me?' - and that's completely understandable! We're here to help you become more confident and articulate communicators through your writing!

3 Additional Tips for Writing

While writing a descriptive essay, your goal is to make your subject come alive for the reader. Unlike more formal essays, you have the freedom to be creative with your descriptions, using figurative language, sensory details, and precise word choices to make your writing memorable.

Use Figurative Language: Figurative language, like metaphors and similes, adds flair to your descriptions. Instead of sticking to literal descriptions, use comparisons to create unique and memorable imagery.

For instance, describing a city as a bustling beehive of activity ' or a forest as ' a blanket of whispers ' adds an unexpected twist that captures the reader's attention.

Engage Your Senses: In a descriptive essay, don't just focus on what something looks like; appeal to all the senses. Describe how things smell, sound, feel, and even taste, if applicable. This adds depth and richness to your descriptions, making them more immersive.

For example, instead of just describing a beach visually, include sensory details like feeling the warm sand between your toes , hearing the rhythmic crash of waves , and t asting the salty sea breeze.

Choose Your Words Carefully: Use effective adjectives, verbs, and nouns to convey your impressions vividly. Avoid clichés and opt for original, precise language that reflects your unique perspective. Take the time to review your sentences and consider if there are better word choices that could enhance your description.

In Wrapping Up

To sum it up, descriptive essays are all about encouraging students like you to explore your surroundings and unleash your creativity by describing scenes in detail with words. When you carefully select and organize these descriptive details, it not only enhances your writing but also sharpens your critical thinking skills. Plus, diving into this expressive writing style allows you to appreciate the beauty of language and feel more connected to written communication. And remember, if you ever need a little boost in your writing journey, our descriptive essay writing service is here to help!

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How To Write A Descriptive Essay?

What is a descriptive essay, what is the purpose of a descriptive essay.

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is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

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New samples
New information on each of the rest sections

Axelrod, R. B. and Cooper, R. C. (2008). The st martin’s guide to writing. (English Edition). New York: Bedford/St Martins

Okono, U. M. (2021). Descriptive essay: An assessment of performance by undergraduates of AkwaIbom State University. Erudite Journal of Linguistics and Languages . https://www.globalacademicstar.com/download/article/descriptive-essay-an-assessment-of-performance-by-undergraduates-of-akwa-ibom-state-university.pdf

Okono. U. M. (2020). “Qualities of a good essay: An assessment of the writings of Nigerian undergraduates.” International Journal on integrated Education. 3: vi.

https://irsc-asc.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/8/1/31813909/e7__descriptive_essay_guidelines.pdf

How to Write a Music Essay: Topics and Examples

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How to Write a Strong Descriptive Essay

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Brainstorming Ideas for the Essay

Writing the essay, polishing the essay, outline for a descriptive essay, expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,529,993 times.

A good descriptive essay creates a vivid picture of the topic in the reader’s mind. You may need to write a descriptive essay as a class assignment or you may decide to write one as a fun writing challenge. Start by brainstorming ideas for the essay. Then, outline and write the essay using vivid sensory details and strong descriptions. Always polish your essay and proofread it so it is at its best.

Best Tips for Writing a Descriptive Essay

Outline the essay in sections and create a thesis statement to base the essay on. Then, write a strong introduction and describe the subject matter using creative and vivid adjectives. Use similes, metaphors, and your own emotions to help you bring the topic to life.

You could also choose a fictional person to write about, such as a character in a book, a story, or a play. You could write about a character on your favorite TV show or video game.

Step 2 Pick a place or object to describe.

Another take on this option is to write about a made-up place or object, such as the fantastical school in your favorite book or the magic wand from your favorite TV show.

You could also choose a more specific emotion, such as brotherly love or self-hatred. These emotions can make for powerful descriptive essays.

Step 4 Make a list of sensory details about the topic.

For example, if you were writing about a person like your mother, you may write down under “sound” : “soft voice at night, clack of her shoes on the floor tiles, bang of the spoon when she cooks.”

If you are writing the essay for a class, your instructor should specify if they want a five paragraph essay or if you have the freedom to use sections instead.

For example, if you were writing a descriptive essay about your mother, you may have a thesis statement like: “In many ways, my mother is the reigning queen of our house, full of contradictions that we are too afraid to question.”

For example, if you were writing the essay about your mom, you may start with: “My mother is not like other mothers. She is a fierce protector and a mysterious woman to my sisters and I.”
If you were writing an essay about an object, you may start with: "Try as I might, I had a hard time keeping my pet rock alive."

Step 4 Describe the topic with vivid adjectives.

You can also use adjectives that connect to the senses, such “rotting,” “bright,” “hefty,” “rough,” and “pungent.”
For example, you may describe your mother as "bright," "tough," and "scented with jasmine."

You can also use similes, where you use “like” or “as” to compare one thing to another. For example, you may write, “My mother is like a fierce warrior in battle, if the battlefield were PTA meetings and the checkout line at the grocery store.”

Step 6 Discuss your emotions and thoughts about the topic.

For example, you may write about your complicated feelings about your mother. You may note that you feel sadness about your mother’s sacrifices for the family and joy for the privileges you have in your life because of her.

Step 7 Wrap up the essay with a strong conclusion.

For example, you may end a descriptive essay about your mother by noting, “In all that she has sacrificed for us, I see her strength, courage, and fierce love for her family, traits I hope to emulate in my own life.”

You can also read the essay aloud to others to get their feedback. Ask them to let you know if there are any unclear or vague sentences in the essay.

Be open to constructive criticism and feedback from others. This will only make your essay stronger.

Step 3 Revise the essay for clarity and length.

If you have a word count requirement for the essay, make sure you meet it. Add more detail to the paper or take unnecessary content out to reach the word count.

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About This Article

To write a descriptive essay, start by choosing a topic, like a person, place, or specific emotion. Next, write down a list of sensory details about the topic, like how it sounds, smells, and feels. After this brainstorming session, outline the essay, dividing it into an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Open with a vivid introduction that uses sensory details, then introduce your thesis statement, which the rest of your essay should support. Strengthen your essay further by using metaphors and similes to describe your topic, and the emotions it evokes. To learn how to put the finishing touches on your essay, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Article contents

Coaching behavior and effectiveness in sport and exercise psychology.

Ronald E. Smith Ronald E. Smith Department of Psychology, University of Washington
and Frank L. Smoll Frank L. Smoll Department of Psychology, University of Washington
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.188
Published online: 19 December 2017

Coaches occupy a central role in sport, fulfilling instructional, organizational, strategic, and social relationship functions, and their relationships with athletes influence both skill development and psychosocial outcomes of sport participation. This review presents the major theoretical models and empirical results derived from coaching research, focusing on the measurement and correlates of coaching behaviors and on intervention programs designed to enhance coaching effectiveness.

A strong empirical literature on motor skill development has addressed the development of technical sport skills, guided in part by a model that divides the skill acquisition process into cognitive, associative, and autonomous phases, each requiring specific coaching knowledge and instructional techniques. Social-cognitive theory’s mediational model, the multidimensional model of sport leadership, achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory have been highly influential in research on the psychosocial aspects of the sport environment. These conceptual models have inspired basic research on the antecedents and consequences of defined coaching behaviors as well as applied research on coach training programs designed to enhance athletes’ sport outcomes. Of the few programs that have been systematically evaluated, outcomes such as enjoyment, liking for coach and teammates, team cohesion, self-esteem, performance anxiety, athletes’ motivational orientation, and sport attrition can be influenced in a salutary fashion by a brief intervention with specific empirically derived behavioral guidelines that focus on creating a mastery motivational climate and positive coach-athlete interactions. However, other existing programs have yet to demonstrate efficacy in controlled outcome research.

coaching behaviors
leadership measurement
behavioral assessment
motor skill development
social cognitive theory
multidimensional leadership model
achievement goal theory
self-determination theory
coaching behavior interventions
psychosocial outcomes

Introduction

Coaches occupy a central role in sport, fulfilling instructional, organizational, strategic, and social relationship functions. Athletes’ skill acquisition, success, enjoyment, continued participation, and physical and psychological well-being are all strongly influenced by coaching behaviors. Not surprisingly, therefore, research on coaching behaviors and their consequences have been a strong focus of research in sport and exercise psychology. This body of scientific literature illustrates important reciprocal linkages between theory, research, and practice. This review focuses on three central facets of this research literature: measurement of coaching behaviors; relations between coaching behaviors and other variables, and interventions designed to enhance coaching practices.

Measurement and Correlates of Coaching Behaviors

Theory and measurement are intimately related. Theoretical models cannot be tested without measures that provide operational definitions of the model’s constructs, and the constructs provide the basis for the content of the measures, whether the measurement model involves questionnaire items completed by coaches and athletes or systematic observation and coding of actual coaching behaviors. Within sport and exercise psychology, several theoretical models have guided research on coaching behaviors. They are considered in their historical order of appearance.

Social-Cognitive Learning Theory: The Mediational Model

Direct observation of behavior is a hallmark of behavioral approaches, including social cognitive learning theory (Mischel, 1973 ; Bandura, 1986 ). The fact that coaching behaviors occur in a public context where they can be directly observed, categorized, and quantified inspired the development of behavioral coding systems beginning in the 1970s. An early example was the use of a ten-category system to assess the coaching behaviors of legendary University of California, Los Angeles basketball coach John Wooden (Tharp & Gallimore, 1976 ). Based on more than 30 hours of observation during team practices, the data showed that Wooden spent approximately 50% of his time giving verbal instruction, 12.7% in admonitions to hustle, and about 7% giving either encouragement and compliments or scolds, respectively. They also described stylistic aspects of his coaching, such as giving very brief and specific instructions and demonstrations that seldom lasted more than 5 seconds.

At about the same time, the Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) was developed as a research tool to permit the direct observation and coding of coaches’ actions during practices and games (Smith, Smoll, & Hunt, 1977 ). The CBAS contained 12 categories divided into two major classes of behaviors. Reactive (elicited) behaviors are responses to immediately preceding athlete or team behaviors, while spontaneous (emitted) behaviors are initiated by the coach and are not a response to a discernible preceding event. Reactive behaviors are responses to either desirable performance or effort (i.e., reinforcement, nonreinforcement), mistakes and errors (i.e., mistake-contingent encouragement, mistake-contingent technical instruction, punishment, punitive technical instruction, ignoring mistakes), or misbehaviors on the part of athletes (i.e., keeping control). The spontaneous class includes general technical instruction, general encouragement, organization, and general communication (unrelated to the current situation). The system thus involves basic interactions between the situation and the coach’s behavior. Use of the CBAS in observing and coding coaching behaviors in a variety of sports has shown that (a) the scoring system is sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate the vast majority of overt leader behaviors, (b) high interrater reliability can be obtained, and (c) individual differences in behavioral patterns can be discerned (Smith, Smoll, & Christensen, 1996 ).

The CBAS was developed within a cognitive-behavioral mediational model that involved interactions between the situation, coaching behaviors, the athlete’s perceptions of the behaviors, and the athlete’s reactions to the behavior (Smoll & Smith, 1989 ). The athlete’s reactions are assumed to be mediated by the athlete’s encoding and perception of the coach’s behavior. This assumption led to the development of a questionnaire (CBAS Perceived Behaviors sScale) for athletes, asking them how frequently their coach engaged in each of the CBAS categories. The latter consists of definitional items that provide examples of prototypic categorical behaviors. For example, the preface to a question on mistake-contingent encouragement may include the following: “A coach may say: ‘Sometimes players goof and make mistakes.’ Some coaches give their players support and encouragement after they make a mistake. For example, they may say, ‘That’s OK. Don’t worry about it; you’ll get ‘em next time.’ Other coaches don’t give much encouragement after mistakes.” Then the survey follows with “How often did your coach encourage you after you made mistakes?” In a study involving 51 youth baseball coaches, 542 athletes, and 57,213 coded behaviors, team-level bivariate correlations between observed and perceived behaviors were variable, with the highest levels of agreement occurring for the categories involving the coaches’ responses to mistakes (+.54 for punishment, +.37 for punitive technical instruction, and +.31 for mistake-contingent technical instruction). Canonical correlation analyses of the observed and perceived behaviors revealed dimensions that correlated +.89 with one another and were both related to attitudes toward the coach, assessed at the end of the season. Both behavioral and perceived dimensions had their highest loadings on the supportive (i.e., positive reinforcement and mistake-contingent encouragement) and the punitive behavioral categories. Notably, however, although the level of agreement reflects as much as 30% common variance, the level of agreement allows for substantial lack of correspondence between observed behaviors and athlete perceptions, and for variation in athletes’ perceptions of a particular coach. Also in accord with the mediational model, athlete-perceived coaching behaviors were more highly and consistently related to their attitudes toward the coach than were observed behaviors. Five behaviors (i.e., mistake-contingent encouragement, general encouragement, punishment, punitive technical instruction, and general technical instruction) were correlated with positive evaluations of the coach at values between .34 and .43, with the punitive categories being negatively correlated with attitudes toward the coach (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1978 ).

A companion self-report CBAS questionnaire modeled on the athlete perception form was also created for coaches. Research showed that, consistent with the mediational model, athlete-perceived coaching behaviors were more strongly related to outcome variables than were the observed behaviors. Furthermore, athletes’ reports were more strongly related to the observed behaviors than were the coaches’ self-reports, indicating that except with regard to punitive behaviors, coaches have limited awareness of how they behave (Smith et al., 1978 ).

Factor analyses of the CBAS revealed three major factors that account for approximately 75% of the behavioral variance: (a) supportiveness (comprised of reinforcement and mistake-contingent encouragement), (b) instructiveness (general technical instruction and mistake-contingent technical instruction versus general communication and general encouragement), and (c) punitiveness (punishment and punitive technical instruction). Relations between coaches’ scores on these behavioral dimensions and athletes’ postseason attitude measures indicated that players responded most favorably to coaches who engaged in higher percentages of supportive and instructional behaviors (Smith et al., 1978 ). Athletes on teams whose coaches created a supportive environment also liked their teammates more. A somewhat surprising finding was that the team’s win-loss record was essentially unrelated to how well the players liked the coach and how much they wanted to play for the coach in the future. This finding that coaching behaviors were far more important predictors of liking for the coach than was win-loss record was replicated in another study involving youth basketball (Cumming, Smoll, Smith, & Grossbard, 2007 ). Notably, however, winning assumed greater importance beyond age 12, although it continued to be a less important attitudinal determinant than coaching behaviors.

As the mediational model predicts, athlete’s reactions to coaching behaviors are influenced by both athlete and situational characteristics. For example, athletes with low in self-esteem are especially responsive to variations in supportive and instructional behaviors in terms of their liking for coaches, preferring coaches who are high on both dimensions, whereas children with high self-esteem are less influenced by how supportive or instructive the coach is (Smith & Smoll, 1990 ). Situational characteristics also matter. In one study in which score of the baseball games were assessed each half inning, factor scores on the supportiveness, punitiveness, and instructiveness dimensions revealed that the rate of supportive behaviors that coaches delivered while their team was winning correlated highly with athlete’s postseason liking, whereas supportive behaviors that occurred while the team was losing bore no relation to liking for the coach. The opposite occurred for punitive behaviors, which were strongly and negatively related to liking when delivered in losing situations, but were only weakly related when given during winning situations. Instructiveness was not differentially affected by the score at the time it occurred (Smith, Shoda, Cumming, & Smoll, 2009 ).

The CBAS has been used in many studies, particularly within youth sports, to develop behavioral profiles of coaches, to assess relations between coaching behaviors and other variables, such as evaluative reactions to the coach, team cohesion, and sport attrition, as well as athletes’ anxiety and self-esteem. It has also been used to measure behavioral changes that occur as a result of coach training (e.g., Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979 ; Conroy & Coatsworth, 2004 ; Lewis, Groom, & Roberts, 2014 ). The CBAS has given impetus to the development of other behavioral coding systems containing similar or related behavioral categories (Morgan, Muir, & Abraham, 2014 ). One recent example, the Coach Analysis and Intervention System (Cushion, Harvey, Muir, & Nelson, 2012 ) uses computer technology to code a wide variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors and the circumstances under which they occur, to whom they are directed, and how they are combined when a coach exhibits several behaviors simultaneously. Another valuable tool allows for the coding of both coach and athlete behaviors, permitting an analysis of coach-athlete interaction patterns (Erickson, Cộté, Hollenstein, & Deakin, 2011 ). These recent developments promise to build upon the research base derived from the CBAS over the past four decades.

Multidimensional Model of Sport Leadership

The study of leadership has a long history in mainstream psychology, spanning social psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, and military psychology (VanVactor, 2013 ). Drawing upon the many theories of leadership, Chelladurai ( 1993 , 2012 ) advanced a multidimensional model of leadership that includes situational characteristics, leader characteristics, and member characteristics. To measure leader characteristics, Chelladurai focused on five dimensions of coaching behavior: (a) training and instruction; (b) democratic behavior (allowing athletes a voice in team decisions); (c) autocratic behaviors (decisions restricted to the coach); (d) social support (expressing personal concern for individual athletes); and (e) positive feedback for good performance. These dimensions are measured by a 40-item leadership scale for sports (LSS), which assesses athletes’ preferences for specific behaviors, their perceptions of their coach’s behaviors, and coaches’ perceptions of their own behavior. The scale has acceptable psychometric properties and has been used in many studies of coaches.

The multidimensional model predicts that athlete performance and satisfaction will be greatest when required (situationally elicited) behaviors, preferred leader behaviors, and actual leader behaviors are aligned. Although support has been found for this hypothesis (Chelladurai, 1984 , 2012 ), results have been inconsistent, with congruent findings for some subscales and not for others, and with inconsistent patterns across studies. In general, however, low discrepancies between training and instruction, social support, and positive feedback tend to be more often related to satisfaction, while autocratic behaviors that exceed preferences are aversive and related to dissatisfaction.

Clearly, other variables interact with the congruence measure in ways as yet undetermined. Of particular interest in this regard is the fact that preferred leader behaviors can vary among athletes. For example, athletes with high anxiety prefer more social support and positive feedback behaviors than do athletes with low anxiety, and athletes with low levels of motivation prefer autocratic behaviors that apparently substitute for internal motivation (Horn, Bloom, Berglund, & Packard, 2011 ). Older and more accomplished athletes prefer coaches who are both autocratic and socially supportive. Males prefer training and instructional and an autocratic style more than women do, whereas women tend to prefer a more democratic style. Studies have also shown marked differences across different nations and cultures (Chelladurai & Reimer, 1998 ). Thus, within this model, there is no “one size fits all” preferred coaching pattern. Rather, coaches who are flexible and can adapt their coaching behaviors to the situation and to the preferences of individual athletes are likely to be most successful.

Given the substantial amount of research involving the LSS, it is puzzling that although many positive findings have occurred in terms of differences between groups of athletes and support has been found for the importance of alignment between preferred and actual coach behaviors, relations between hypotheses derived from the multidimensional model and objective measures of performance have proven to be weaker than expected, and at times inconsistent with expectations (Chelladurai & Reimer, 2012 ). Objective performance is an understandably challenging target variable, as it is affected by many factors beyond leadership style, including athletic talent, unforeseen injuries, strength of opponents, and an array of psychological factors that are largely beyond the coach’s influence. Also, quantitative measures of broad classes of behavior, whether coded with the CBAS or reported, do not necessarily reflect important qualities of the behavior (e.g., instructional adequacy or encouragement delivered in a sarcastic fashion), a fact that can reduce relations to performance. Moreover, there is evidence that coaches are perceived as responding differentially to more and less successful athletes. In a study of collegiate football players, for example, higher-performing athletes (starters) rated their coaches as engaging in significantly higher levels of training and instruction, as having a more democratic and a less autocratic decision-making style, as being more socially supportive, and as offering more positive feedback than did lower-status athletes labeled “survivors” by their coaches. The latter perceived their coaches as more autocratic and as low on the other four behavioral dimensions. Additionally, longitudinal evidence exists that LSS behaviors are not stable over the course of a season, with instructional, democratic, and positive feedback showing the largest changes (Fletcher & Roberts, 2013 ). Temporal invariance could therefore affect perceived behavior scores on the LSS and cloud relationships of the LSS with other variables across studies.

Finally, the multidimensional model is complex, with many “moving parts.” It is possible that complex and as yet undiscovered interactions among mediating factors remain hidden, as in the mediation model, where nonsignificant overall relations between CBAS observed behaviors and attitudes toward the coach when behaviors were aggregated across game situations suddenly became highly significant when the game situation variable was taken into account.

Given the degree of conceptual overlap between the mediational and multidimensional models of coaching behavior, it is interesting to assess relations between the CBAS and the LSS. A study of high school athletes that related LSS scores to scores on the CBAS athlete form revealed strong relations between scores on the two scales, and both LSS and CBAS scores accounted for substantial and similar amount of variance in positive attitudes toward the coach (Cumming, Smith, & Smoll, 2006 ). For example, the CBAS categories accounted for 39% of the variance, and the LSS scales accounted for 37% of the variance in the amount of enjoyment experienced while playing for the coach. In accord with predictions made by Chelladurai ( 1993 ), the LSS positive feedback scale was highly correlated with the CBAS categories of reinforcement and general encouragement and negatively related to nonreinforcement. However, the same pattern was shown for the LSS social support scale and, in general, all of the positively toned CBAS behaviors correlated well with all of the LSS scales, except autocratic, the only scale that correlated positively with the punitive CBAS categories. In general, therefore, convergent validity greatly exceeded discriminant validity in the LSS-CBAS relations. High positive correlations among the training, democratic, positive feedback, and social support scales of the LSS add to the discriminant validity issue.

Achievement Goal Theory

No theory has had a greater impact on sport psychology over the past two decades than achievement goal theory (AGT). Originally developed to study motivation within the educational domain (Nicholls, 1989 ; Ames, 1992 ), the relevance of the theory to motivational issues in sport soon became apparent, inspiring a substantial amount of sport psychology research.

Achievement goal theory focuses on the function and the meaning of goal-directed actions, based on how participants define success and how they judge whether or not they have demonstrated competence. The two central constructs in the theory are individual goal orientations that guide achievement perceptions and behavior, and the motivational climate created within achievement settings. The theory posits two separate conceptions of success represented in mastery (task) and ego achievement goal orientations. In mastery orientation, success is self-referenced, defined in terms of personal improvement, enjoyment, effort, and learning from mistakes. In ego orientation, success is other-referenced, achieved through besting others or equaling their level of performance using minimal effort (Ames, 1992 ; Roberts, 2001 ).

According to AGT, how an individual defines success and competence is influenced by interacting dispositional and environmental factors. Environmental conditions that emphasize and reinforce mastery or ego success criteria comprise the motivational climate. Achievement goal theory posits two types of motivational climates that promote either mastery or ego conceptions of success. A mastery climate emphasizes enjoyment, giving maximum effort, and personal improvement as indicators of success, stresses the importance of each team member and promotes mutual support and cooperative learning. Mistakes are viewed not as something to be dreaded but as a natural consequence of learning and as providing the feedback needed to improve performance; coaches provide encouragement and corrective instruction when they occur.

In an ego climate, there is a strong emphasis on outcome. Success is defined as winning out over others; differential attention is focused on the best athletes; intrateam rivalry is promoted by comparing athletes favorably or unfavorably with one another; and mistakes are negatively evaluated and often punished (Ames, 1992 ; Roberts, 2001 ).

Achievement goal theory has inspired the development of sport-specific measures designed to assess differences in both achievement goal orientations and in motivational climates created by coaches, parents, and peers. The most widely employed coach-initiated motivational climate scale is the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 (PIMCSQ-2; Newton, Duda, & Yin, 2000 ), which is appropriate by its reading level for adolescents and adult populations. An adaptation designed for children down to ages 8 or 9 is the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sport (MCSYS; Smith, Cumming, & Smoll, 2008 ). Both scales have separate mastery (task) and ego-climate subscales, but the PIMCSQ-2 also measures underlying facets of the task climate (i.e., cooperative learning, effort-improvement emphasis, and an important role for all participants) and ego climate (i.e., intrateam rivalry, unequal recognition, and punishment for mistakes). Most studies use the superordinate task and ego scales. The MCSYS mastery and ego scales correlate −.38, indicating that coaches engage in both classes of behavior. Sample mastery scale items are (a) “The coach told players to help each other get better,” (b) “The coach made players feel good when they improved a skill,” and (c) “Coach said that all of us were important to the team’s success.” Sample ego-scale items are (a) “Winning games was the most important thing for the coach,” (b) “Players were taken out of games if they made a mistake,” and (c) “The coach paid most attention to the best players.”

The motivational climate created by coaches has been shown to be related to a wide array of sport outcomes (Duda & Treasure, 2015 ; McArdle & Duda, 2002 ). As in educational settings, a strong body of empirical evidence shows that a mastery climate is linked to a wide array of positive outcomes, including enhanced enjoyment and satisfaction, higher levels of perceived competence and performance, lower performance anxiety, higher levels of self-esteem, and higher levels of intrinsic motivation for sport participation. A mastery environment fosters the belief that effort, which is controllable, is the key to sport success, whereas athletes in an ego climate place greater emphasis on ability. A mastery climate promotes greater goal persistence and sustained effort, and athletes tend to adopt adaptive achievement strategies such as selecting challenging tasks, giving maximum effort, persisting in the face of setbacks, and taking pride in personal improvement. In contrast, an ego-involving climate promotes social comparison as a basis for success judgments, whereas an ego environment yields discouragement when a positive outcome is not achieved. In a mastery climate, athletes show more positive and prosocial moral attitudes, whereas an ego climate is associated with greater willingness to cheat or do whatever is necessary to win. Finally, a mastery climate fosters greater team cohesion, attraction among team members, positive evaluations of the coach, and lower rates of sport attrition compared with an ego climate. Consistent with AGT, a large body of research shows that mastery and ego climates promote and strengthen corresponding goal orientations (Duda & Treasure, 2015 ). Over the course of a sport season, youth athletes exposed to a mastery climate exhibit increases in mastery goal orientation scores and decreases in ego goal orientation, whereas those in an ego climate show increases in ego goal orientation (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2009 ).

Notably, behaviors associated with mastery and ego climates are not mutually exclusive; rather, they are a matter of emphasis. Most coaches engage in a mixture of mastery- and ego-oriented behaviors, particularly during competition, when the orientation is likely to shift the outcome. The same is true of athletes’ goal orientations. Highly successful athletes often have an overall mastery orientation but shift into an ego-oriented state during competition, when the focus is on winning.

One indicator of the influence of the motivational climate comes from studies comparing its effects on athletes’ reactions to their sport experience with team success (win-loss record). In a study of 10- to 15-year-old athletes, their team’s winning percentage was positively related to athletes’ judgments of their coaches’ perceived knowledge and teaching ability, but motivational climate accounted for far more variance than did winning percentage in terms of how much they liked playing for the coach and wished to do so in the future (Cumming et al., 2007 ). In a later study of adolescent basketball players, motivational climate exhibited stronger and more pervasive relations to the athletes’ attitudes toward the coach, teammates, and the sport experience than did winning (Breiger, Cumming, Smith, & Smoll, 2015 ). For both boys and girls, winning percentage was related to enjoyment derived from playing the sport and intention to continue participation the following season. Likewise, for both boys and girls, mastery climate scores were positively and significantly related to enjoyment playing on the team, liking for the coach, and perceived liking by the coach. However, the results also showed that gender influences athletes’ responses to both winning and to the motivational climate. An ego climate clearly had a more negative impact on girls, with ego climate scores being negatively related to how much girls liked the sport, how much fun they had playing on their teams, and how much they believed the coach liked them.

An ego climate also affected the importance of win-loss record in ways a mastery climate did not. For both boys and girls, significant relations were found between winning percentage and liking for the sport, personal importance of winning, and intention to return the following year. Nonetheless, gender differences also occurred. In an ego climate, liking for and desire to again play for the coach, liking for teammates and enjoyment playing on the team were positively related to winning record for boys, but not for girls. Enjoyment playing on the team and desire to play for the coach again were positively and significantly related to winning record for boys, but not for girls. It thus appears that winning within an ego climate is more important than it is in a mastery climate, but that winning may affect different attitudes and aspects of the experience for boys than for girls.

Motivational climate research has focused attention on the coach-athlete relationship. Building upon this foundation, several new conceptual models have appeared that focus on the quality of the relationship that is to be found particularly within a mastery climate. Relational coaching (Jowett, 2009 ) focuses on four important aspects of the coach-athlete relationship: (a) mutual closeness, (b) commitment to the relationship, (c) complementarity (ability to work cooperatively), and (d) co-orientation (the ability to view the relationship from both one’s own and the other’s perspective). The Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire is used to measure these aspects of the relationship, and research using this measure shows that relationships that are high on these factors produce the most enjoyable and productive coach-athlete climate.

Another derivative conception, again related to the mastery climate but not identical with it, is the caring environment, where individuals are made to feel a sense of belonging and in which participants treat one another with kindness and mutual respect. Research on the caring environment has shown that the positive emotions produced by such an environment mediate positive well-being in athletes (Fry, Guivernau, Kim, Newton, Gano-Overway, & Magyar, 2012 ).

All of the AGT results cited so far are based on athlete perceptions of the motivational climate, using either the PMCSQ or the MCSYS instruments. This is an entirely defensible approach, for as the mediational model described earlier emphasizes, it is the athlete’s perceptions of the climate that mediate the effects of coach behaviors on outcome variables. Nonetheless, the need to assess the actual climate-relevant behaviors of coaches from both methodological and theoretical perspectives has repeatedly been cited (N. Smith et al., 2015 ). A new theoretical advance integrating AGT and self-determination theory, described in the following section, has inspired the development of a new observation system tied to the expanded model.

Self-Determination Theory

A recent theoretical advance integrates AGT with another prominent motivational theory that has special relevance to sport-related motivation (Duda, 2013 ). Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000 ) focuses on factors that influence the development of motivation, particularly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The relative strength of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation determines an individual’s sense of autonomy, the extent to which behavior is viewed as self-governed. Together with competence (the perceived mastery over behavior) and relatedness (the perceived sense of belonging), autonomy is considered a basic need that facilitates psychological well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ). SDT proposes that the social environment influences the extent to which these basic needs are satisfied.

SDT holds that internal and external behavioral goals are distributed on a continuum of self-determination. On the self-determined end lies intrinsic motivation, where actions are performed in the service of inherent enjoyment of the activity. The continuum also contains three different variants of extrinsic motivation. From higher to lower self-determination, these are termed (a) identified regulation (in which behavior is related to other goals, such as engaging in the sport to lose weight or improve conditioning), (b) introjected regulation (in which behavior functions to avoid a negative emotion or for ego enhancement), and (c) external regulation (in which the behavior is performed for external reasons, such as tangible rewards or the avoidance of punishment). SDT also retains the concept of amotivation, in which behavior loses all reinforcement value and occurs largely out of habit (e.g., “I’m not sure why I swim any more.”). Generally, because behavior is guided more by external incentives or becomes amotivated, positive qualities of human nature are hindered, whereas greater self-determination or autonomy allows positive qualities to flourish (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ). An imposing literature both within and outside of sport supports this contention and demonstrates superior well-being (i.e., high feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness) under conditions that foster high intrinsic motivation (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 2000 ; Duda, 2013 ; Amorose & Anderson-Butcher, 2015 ).

The integration of AGT and SDT was inspired by clear conceptual overlap between a mastery motivational climate and situational factors identified in SDT research that promoted the satisfaction of autonomy, relatedness, and competency needs, as well as strong evidence that a mastery motivational climate had salutary effects on the need variables within SDT. Moreover, in the prediction of meaningful sport outcomes, concurrently applying AGT and SDT measures as predictor variables accounted for overlapping but also independent sources of variance (Quested & Duda, 2010 ), and they also related differentially to important aspects of athlete well-being and quality of functioning. Duda ( 2013 ) advanced a hierarchical multidimensional model of empowering and disempowering motivational climates. An empowering environment is mastery-oriented, socially supportive, and autonomy supportive of internal self-regulation. A disempowering climate is ego oriented, punitive, nonsupportive, and controlling.

Although applications of the model are in their relative infancy, both perceived and behavioral-observation measures of the integrated motivational climate have been developed. A 30-item Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate Questionnaire-Coach (EDMCQ-C; Appleton, Ntoumanis, Quested, Viladrich, & Duda, 2016 ) allows athletes to rate their coach’s climate relevant behavior on an agree-disagree scale and is used to measure five dimensions of the perceived motivational climate: (a) task involved, (b) ego involved, (c) controlling, (d) autonomy supportive, and (e) socially supportive.

A behavioral observational system, the Multidimensional Motivational Climate Observation System (MMCOS; N. Smith et al., 2015 ) provides a measure used to rate the measure the coach’s observed behaviors in relation to the theoretical model. It is a complex system, consisting of two superordinate dimensions (empowering and disempowering) seven environmental dimensions (autonomy support, controlling, task-involving, ego-involving, relatedness support, relatedness thwarting, and structure), and 32 lower-order coaching strategies that are checked off and used to rate the higher-order dimensions. The system is used to code temporally or event-defined segments (e.g., 5-minute segments in a soccer match). The MMCOS is clearly more complex than the CBAS and provides a more nuanced behavioral profile. However, unlike the CBAS and other behavioral coding systems, it is not a quantitative measure of the frequency with which observed behaviors actually occur; rather, it is a set of observer ratings.

Initial assessment of the construct validity of the perceived and observed behavior measures have been conducted with large multinational samples of athletes representing a variety of sports. One study that assessed relationships between athlete-perceived (EDMCQ-C) and observed (MMCOS) behaviors as well as the relations of both measures to athlete indices of autonomous (internal), externally controlled motivation, and amotivation (N. Smith, Tessier, Tzioumakis, Fabra, Quested, Appleton et al., 2016 ). None of the correlations between athlete-perceived and observed behaviors providing indices of the five empowering and disempowering dimensions exceeded .09, reflecting less than 1% common variance, a figure far lower than that obtained with the CBAS categories derived from social learning theory in a youth sport sample similar in age. Likewise, relationships between the MCCOS behavior measures and the theoretically related athlete motivation measures were quite low, ranging from −.01 to .09 and accounting for less than 1% of the motivational outcome variance. Correlations of the athlete-perceived EDMCQ-C measures with the athlete motivation variables were more favorable, with correlations exceeding .30 found between coach controlling and ego-oriented behaviors and athletes’ externally controlled motivation and amotivation. These results lend stronger evidence for the construct validity of the athlete-perceived measure than those reported for the observational measure. In another study, empowering climate scores on the EDMCQ-C were positively related to enjoyment and self-esteem and negatively related to reduced accomplishment, devaluation, and physical health symptoms, whereas a disempowering climate was negatively related to enjoyment and self-esteem, and positively related to athlete burnout and negative health symptoms (Appleton & Duda, 2016 ). However, a more sophisticated analysis that simultaneously assessed the interactive effects of empowering and disempowering motivational climates accounted for only about 1% of the variance in these targeted outcome variables. Buffering the effects of disempowering coach behaviors required a very high level of empowering behaviors. This result is consistent with CBAS findings that although punitive behavior categories occur with far less frequency than do the positive behaviors (also shown in the observational data of N. Smith et al., 2016 ), they have a disproportionate negative impact on athletes by creating an aversive sport environment.

Enhancing Coaching Effectiveness

There has never been any question that coaches occupy a central role in sports, exerting key influence on sport outcomes through their roles as teachers and strategic planners, and in the relationships they form with athletes and parents. Understandably, therefore, enhancing their pedagogical, strategic, and interpersonal capabilities has long been a focus within sport and exercise psychology. Two lines of emphasis are evident that, historically, have occurred along relatively independent tracks. The first involves instruction in motor learning principles and strategic techniques designed to develop athletes’ physical skills and optimal strategic decision making by coaches. The second emphasis, of more recent origin, is focused on helping coaches to create a psychosocial sport environment that enhances outcomes for athletes. As empirical evidence, such as that reviewed in the previous section, has accumulated showing consistent relationships between coaching behaviors and their impact on athletes and team functioning, coach interventions addressing this domain have been developed.

Enhancing Strategic and Instructional Capabilities

Motor skill learning is highly sport specific, but a strong science base has emerged on general principles involved in learning, maintaining, and improving such skills (Coker, 2013 ; Magill, 2013 ). The dominant model divides the motor learning process into three phases: the cognitive, associative, and autonomous phases. Each of these requires different coaching techniques. In the cognitive phase, explanations and demonstrations by the coach allow athletes to develop a motor program, a set of internal representations, and self-instructions to guide the movement. With practice and feedback, both from the athlete’s sensory systems and from the coach, the motor program is revised, corrected, and refined so that the skill is executed in an increasingly synchronized fashion. The coach designs exercises and practice routines, adjusts instruction depending on the progress being shown, gives corrective feedback, and provides encouragement to facilitate the process.

Once the athlete can execute the skill in the way it was demonstrated, the associative phase begins. In this intermediate phase of learning, the learner has moved from having a general idea of how to perform the skill to being able to perform it accurately and consistently. Speed, accuracy, coordination, and consistency improves even further and the athlete develops an implicit “feel” for the activity based on a more autonomous motor program and the ability to self-correct when errors occur. The coach’s role is now to utilize the skill in actual sport situations and to plan strategy, largely by designing effective practices that allow the athlete to apply the skill to simulated or real competitive situations. Error correction requires the ability to detect increasingly subtle errors and to provide demonstrations and feedback in a manner that can be used for further refinement and skill application. In closed skills (e.g., bowling or free throw shooting), the environment is fairly constant, and consistency of movement is the primary focus. In open skills, where the environment is diverse and unpredictable (e.g., in golf), the coach must help the athlete diversify the movement to meet environmental demands and teach the athlete which environmental cues are key to planning and making adjustments. The provision of effective feedback continues to be an important function of the coach during this phase.

In the autonomous or advanced phase of skill learning, the motor program is run off with little conscious thought or attention to the movement. Indeed, conscious attention to the movement can degrade performance by disrupting the automaticity of the highly developed skill sequence. As Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, “You can’t think and hit at the same time.” The phrase “paralysis by analysis,” popular among coaches and athletes, captures the phenomenon. Performance slumps are perpetuated by cognitive interference with the normal flow of skill execution. During this phase, the major demands on the coach involve highly refined practice routines, subtle error correction, and encouragement and motivational overtures where needed. At this level, exquisite understanding of the skill and ability to communicate effectively are prime requisites for effective coaching. Excellent resources are available to help coaches at all levels of sport refine their sport-specific teaching and strategic skills (e.g., Coker, 2013 ; Martens, 2012 ). Among the newer additions to the coach’s performance enhancement tool kit is instruction in utilizing and teaching athletes not only motor and strategic skills, but also empirically supported psychological skills such as systematic goal setting, attention control, stress management, self-talk, confidence, and mental rehearsal procedures (e.g., Burton & Raedeke, 2008 ).

Enhancing Psychosocial Outcomes in Athletes

Increased awareness of the manner in which the coach-athlete relationship can positively or adversely affect not only skill development but also a wide range of psychosocial outcomes in athletes of all ages is attributable to an enormous body of empirical research. Coaching behaviors have been shown to influence athletes’ self-esteem, motivation, performance anxiety, attitudes toward their sport experience, peer relationships, burnout, psychological skills development, physical well-being, and sport attrition. Concerns about athletes’ well-being, an alarming sport dropout rate exceeding 30% per year in young athletes (Gould, 1987 ) and, in some cases, formal legislation requiring training for youth sport coaches, has stimulated the development of many training programs for coaches over the past four decades. Unfortunately, development has far outstripped systematic evaluation of their effects.

Coach Effectiveness Training/Mastery Approach to Coaching

Widespread concerns about adult-created problems in youth sports prompted the Youth Enrichment in Sports program of research and application. The aims of the project, carried out in two phases were (a) to study relations between coaching behaviors and young athletes’ reactions to their youth sport experience and (b) to use the empirical results as the basis for an evidence-based intervention for coaches (Smith et al., 1978 ). Cognitive social learning theory (Bandura, 1986 ; Mischel, 1973 ) formed the basis for instrument development (e.g., the CBAS) and the intervention procedures, which involved modeling and role playing of desirable behaviors and coach self-monitoring of their behaviors to enhance awareness. A more comprehensive discussion of cognitive-behavioral principles and techniques used in conducting psychologically oriented coach training programs appears elsewhere (Smoll & Smith, 2015 ). Essentially, however, the intervention is designed to influence observed and athlete-perceived coaching behaviors, and these changes, are thought to mediate other effects of the training on young athletes.

Data derived from two large-scale phase 1 studies provided clear links between the CBAS dimensions of supportiveness, instructiveness, and punitiveness and athletes’ reactions to their coach, their teammates, and other aspects of their experience. Phase 2 involved the development and evaluation of a brief and highly focused intervention for youth sport coaches based on the evidence-based phase 1 findings. The intervention initially was called Coach Effectiveness Training (CET). With the development of AGT a decade later, it became clear that the CET guidelines (particularly its conception of success) were entirely consistent with the mastery motivational climate described by AGT, and a later version of the intervention formally introduced motivational climate content. The 75-minute intervention was therefore renamed the Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC).

The MAC program incorporates two major themes. First, it strongly emphasizes the distinction between positive versus aversive control of behavior (Smith, 2015 ). In a series of coaching “do’s and don’ts” derived from the foundational phase 1 research on coaching behaviors and their effects, coaches are encouraged to increase four specific behaviors: (a) positive reinforcement, (b) mistake-contingent encouragement, (c) corrective instruction given in a positive and encouraging fashion, and (d) sound technical instruction. Coaches are urged to avoid nonreinforcement of positive behaviors, punishment for mistakes, and punitive technical instruction following mistakes. They are also instructed how to establish team rules and reinforce compliance with them to avoid discipline problems, and to reinforce socially supportive behaviors among team members. These guidelines, which are summarized in Table 1 , are designed to increase positive coach-athlete interactions, enhance team solidarity, reduce fear of failure, and promote a positive atmosphere for skill development.

The second important MAC theme is a conception of success as giving maximum effort and becoming the best one can be, rather than an emphasis on winning or outperforming others. Derived from Coach John Wooden’s definition of success as “the sense of self-satisfaction from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming,” (Wooden & Carty, 2005 , p. 12), MAC-trained coaches are thus encouraged to adopt a four-part philosophy of winning (Smith & Smoll, 2012 , pp. 27–28):

Winning isn’t everything, nor is it the only thing . Young athletes cannot get the most out of sports if they think that the only objective is to beat their opponents. Although winning is an important goal, it is not the most important objective.

Failure is not the same thing as losing . It is important that athletes do not view losing as a sign of failure or as a threat to their personal value.

Success is not equivalent to winning . Neither success nor failure need depend on the outcome of a contest or on a win-loss record. Winning and losing pertain to the outcome of a contest, whereas success and failure do not.

Athletes should be taught that success is found in striving for victory (i.e., success is related to commitment and effort). Athletes should be taught that they are never “losers” if they give maximum effort.

This philosophy, which is highly congruent with a mastery motivational climate, is designed to maximize young athletes’ enjoyment of sport and their chances of deriving the benefits of participation, partly as a result of combating competitive anxiety. Although seeking victory is encouraged as inherent to competitive sports, the ultimate importance of winning is reduced relative to other participation motives. In recognition of the inverse relation between enjoyment and postcompetition stress (Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002 ), fun is highlighted as the paramount objective. The philosophy also promotes separation of the athlete’s feelings of self-worth from the game’s outcome, which serves to help overcome fear of failure. The mastery-oriented coaching guidelines and philosophy of winning are thus consistent with the procedures successfully designed by Ames ( 1992 ) and Epstein ( 1988 ) to create a mastery learning climate in the classroom. The behavioral guidelines that form the core of the MAC intervention are shown in Table 1 . The MAC workshop, together with supporting materials, is now available online at www.y-e-sports.org .

Table 1. Summary of Mastery Approach to Coaching Guidelines

Provide Do so immediately. Let the athletes know that you appreciate and value their efforts. Reinforce effort as much as you do results. Look for positive things, reinforce them, and you will see them increase. Remember, whether athletes show it or not, the positive things you say and do remain with them.

: Take their efforts for granted.

Give immediately after mistakes. That’s when the youngster needs your support the most. If you are sure the athlete knows how to correct the mistake, then encouragement alone is sufficient. When appropriate, give , but always do so in an encouraging manner. Do this by emphasizing not the bad things that just happened but the good things that will happen if the athlete follows your instruction (the “why” of it). This will make the athlete positively self-motivated to correct the mistakes rather than negatively motivated to avoid failure and your disapproval.

when things are going wrong! Punishment isn’t just yelling. It can be tone of voice, action, or any indication of disapproval. Athletes respond much better to a positive approach. Fear of failure is reduced if you work to reduce fear of punishment. Indications of displeasure should be limited to clear cases of lack of effort; but, even here, criticize the lack of effort rather than the athlete as a person.

Give corrective instruction in a hostile, demeaning, or harsh manner. That is, avoid . This is more likely to increase frustration and create resentment than to improve performance. Don’t let your good intentions in giving instruction be self-defeating.

Maintain order by establishing clear expectations. Emphasize that during a game all members of the team are part of the activity, even those on the bench. Use reinforcement to strengthen team participation. In other words, try to prevent misbehaviors by using the positive approach to strengthen their opposites.

Get into the position of having to constantly nag or threaten athletes to prevent chaos. Don’t be a drill sergeant. If an athlete refuses to cooperate, deprive him or her of something valued. Don’t use physical measures, such as running laps. The idea here is that if you establish clear behavioral guidelines early and work to build team spirit in achieving them, you can avoid having to repeatedly . Youngsters want clear guidelines and expectations, but they don’t want to be regimented. Try to achieve a healthy balance.

Give . Establish your role as a caring and competent teacher. Try to structure participation as a learning experience in which you are going to help the athletes become the best they can be. Always give instruction in a positive way. Satisfy your athletes’ desire to improve their skills. Give instruction in a clear, concise manner and, if possible, demonstrate how to do skills correctly.

Give encouragement. Encourage effort; don’t demand results. Use encouragement selectively so that it is meaningful. Be supportive without acting like a cheerleader.

Concentrate on the activity. Be “in the game” with the athletes. Set a good example for team unity.

Give either instruction or encouragement in a sarcastic or degrading manner. Make a point, then leave it. Don’t let “encouragement” become irritating to the athletes.

Note . Excerpted from the manual given to MAC workshop participants (Smoll & Smith, 2009 ).

A notable finding from observational studies is that coaches have very limited awareness of how they behave, as indicated by low correlations between observed and coach-rated behaviors (N. Smith et al., 2016 ; R. Smith et al., 1978 ). Because behavior change does not occur without awareness of one’s behavior, MAC coaches are taught the use of two proven behavioral-change techniques, namely, behavioral feedback and self-monitoring. To obtain feedback, coaches are encouraged to work with their assistants as a team and share descriptions of each others’ behaviors. Another feedback procedure involves coaches soliciting input directly from their athletes. With respect to self-monitoring, the workshop manual includes a brief Coach Self-Report Form, containing nine items related to the behavioral guidelines that coaches complete after practices and games (Smoll & Smith, 2009 , p. 25). On the form, coaches are asked how often they engaged in the recommended behaviors in relevant situations.

The CET/MAC intervention has been evaluated numerous times in experimental and quasi-experimental studies since its development (for more detailed reviews, see Smith & Smoll, 2011 ; Smoll & Smith, 2015 ). The outcomes supporting the efficacy of the coach-training program are summarized here:

Differences between experimental and control group coaches occurred in both observed and athlete-perceived coach behaviors in accordance with the behavioral guidelines (Smith et al., 1979 ; Smoll, Smith, & Cumming, 2007 ; Lewis et al., 2014 ).

Trained coaches were better liked and rated as better teachers; and their athletes reported more fun playing the sport, and a higher level of attraction among teammates. Increases in athletes’ perceptions of both task-related and social group cohesion have also been reported for youngsters who played for trained versus untrained coaches (Smith et al., 1979 ; McLaren, Eys, & Murray, 2015 ).

Athletes’ reports of their team’s coach-initiated motivational climate clearly supported the efficacy of the intervention. In this regard, trained coaches received significantly higher mastery-climate scores and lower ego-climate scores on the MCSYS climate measure compared with untrained coaches. Moreover, in accord with AGT, male and female athletes who played for trained coaches exhibited increases in mastery goal orientation scores and significant decreases in ego orientation scores. In contrast, athletes who played for control group coaches did not change in their goal orientations from preseason to late season. Paralleling the significant difference between intervention and control groups in sport-related mastery scores, a significant group difference was found on the mastery score of an academic achievement goal scale as well, suggesting generalization of achievement goals (Smoll et al., 2007 ).

Consistent with a self-esteem enhancement model, children with low self-esteem who played for trained coaches show significant increases in feelings of self-worth. Youngsters with low self-esteem in the control group did not change (Smith et al., 1979 ; Smoll, Smith, Barnett, & Everett, 1993 ; Coatsworth & Conroy, 2006 ).

Athletes who played for trained coaches showed significant decreases in sport performance anxiety over the course of the season (Smith, Smoll, & Barnett, 1995 ; Conroy & Coatsworth, 2004 ; Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007 ).

Attrition in youth sports is a pervasive concern that has negative health and psychosocial implications. With the win-loss record controlled, children who played for untrained youth baseball coaches dropped out of all sports the following season at a rate of 26%, whereas those who played for trained coaches had only a 5% dropout rate (Barnett, Smoll, & Smith, 1992 ).

Traditionally, CET/MAC training has been offered in a workshop format. However, many sport psychologists work with individual coaches. A recent and promising adaptation is the Individualized Program for Counseling Coaches (Sousa, Smith, & Cruz, 2008 ; Cruz, Mora, Sousa, & Alcaraz, 2016 ). This individualized intervention combines MAC principles and behavioral guidelines with behavioral feedback and systematic goal setting to help coaches modify their behavior in accordance with their own behavioral objectives.

The intervention occurs in six steps. First, the CBAS is used to code the coach’s behaviors during a series of practices and matches to provide an average of 250–400 coded behaviors, thereby providing baseline data to help coaches become more aware of their coaching pattern and to assess postintervention changes. Next, a 60-minute session is held to go over basic principles concerning the motivational climate and its effects on athletes. In a second 60-minute session, the behavioral guidelines shown in Table 1 are presented in an interactive fashion. In the following session, the coach is presented with his or her behavioral profile derived from the CBAS observations, summarized in terms of the three factorial dimensions of supportiveness, punitiveness, and instructiveness, together with feedback on which behaviors would best be increased or decreased to optimize the coach’s effectiveness. The coach is then asked to select three CBAS categories that they want to increase or decrease. Finally, role playing is used to help the coach rehearse the target behaviors with the guidance of the trainer. The coach is encouraged to self-monitor during subsequent practices and matches and are given guidelines and reminders. CBAS data as well as athlete and coach reports are then collected during two subsequent practices and two matches as at baseline.

The results of the intervention have been very encouraging. In separate single-subject studies involving a total of 5 coaches, the trained coaches have exhibited behavior changes in accordance with their goals in most instances, increasing desirable behaviors and reducing negative ones (Sousa et al., 2008 ; Cruz et al., 2016 ). Of additional interest, generalization effects have been shown in behavior categories that were not specifically targeted by the coach, yielding a more positive behavioral profile overall following the intervention. For example, coaches who chose to increase positive reinforcement and encouragement showed a concomitant drop in punitive behaviors. These behavior changes were in most cases consistent with athlete’s perceptions of the coach’s behaviors on the athlete perception CBAS questionnaire. The encouraging results obtained in these single-coach studies indicate that this adaptation is worthy of further investigation and that its use of feedback and individualized goal setting, both of which have strong empirical support, is a significant feature of the training program.

Despite the rapid proliferation of coach education programs since the early 1970s, almost all of the systematic outcome research on the efficacy of coach training has been done with the CET/MAC program (Langan, Blake, & Lonsdale, 2013 ). Evidence for the efficacy of the intervention has now been provided by five different research groups. Based on the outcome studies, it appears that the empirically derived behavioral principles can be readily applied by coaches and that their application has salutary effects on a range of psychosocial outcome variables in young male and female athletes. However, there is a need for further research, particularly follow-up studies to assess the longer-term impact of the intervention on both coaches and athletes.

Empowering Coaching

The integration of AGT with SDT (Duda, 2013 ) is a major theoretical advance that has resulted in the concept of empowering and disempowering motivational climates. In an empowering climate, athletes strive for mastery goals, feel a sense of belonging, and believe they have a choice over how they behave. In a disempowering environment, the emphasis is on ego goals, punishment is applied, and athletes feel controlled by their coach.

Based on this model, an Empowering Coaching TM intervention was developed, applied, and evaluated in five European countries. The intervention is of 6 hours duration and educates coaches about the tenets of AGT and SDT relating to task and ego climates and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation and offers guidelines for increasing the empowering climate and reducing its disempowering aspects. Video clips and reflective exercises are designed to engage coaches in the content of the workshop (for a more detailed descriptions of the project and the intervention, see Duda, 2013 ; Project PAPA, 2016 ). The program’s emphasis differs somewhat from the CET/MAC empirically based behavioral guidelines approach:

Furthermore, this education programme is not about providing coaches with a “laundry list” of strategies or responses they can and should employ when interacting with their athletes . . . Rather, . . . the aim is to develop coaches’ conceptual understanding of motivation, motivation processes and their consequences. It is assumed that this enhanced “working knowledge” will make it more likely that a more empowering approach to coaching will be adopted, maintained, and generalized to different situations (Duda, 2013 , p. 315).

The intervention was tested in the largest experimental trial undertaken to date, involving 175 clubs, 854 teams, and 7,769 children in five European countries. Outcome variables involved athletes’ perceptions of empowering and disempowering aspects of the motivational climate using the behavioral EDMCQ-C measure, as well as measures of self-esteem, enjoyment, anxiety, and intentions to drop out. Some children wore accelerometers to record activity level during the week, and a subset of coaches was filmed so that their behaviors could be coded using the MCCOS observational instrument.

Several positive results were obtained. Behavioral observations in a subset of trained coaches revealed a more empowering and less disempowering climate over the course of the season. Children who played for trained coaches viewed their motivational climate as less disempowering (but not more empowering) and rated themselves as less likely to drop out of their program. However, no statistically significant positive outcomes have been reported for other important athlete variables, including autonomy, competence, and relatedness need satisfaction, enjoyment, self-esteem, anxiety, athlete burnout, and increased physical activity (Project PAPA, 2016 ). Possibly, the Empowering Coaches TM programs’ heavy emphasis on theoretical and conceptual content interfered with the development of the kind of rule-governed behavior that has been shown to result from adherence to specific behavioral guidelines (Baldwin & Baldwin, 2001 ). A more focused approach with greater emphasis on clear and specific behavioral guidelines may prove more efficacious while at the same time resulting in a more time-limited intervention.

Undoubtedly, coaches play a vital role in the athletic environment, and their behaviors influence the technical, cognitive, strategic, and psychosocial development of athletes. There is a wealth of empirical support for methods of teaching technical skills. The same is not the case in the psychosocial domain. Despite the substantial number of coach intervention programs developed over the past 30 years designed to enhance psychosocial outcomes, it is rather astounding that only a few of these programs have undergone any evaluation of efficacy. Coach training, particularly in the area of youth sports, has become a large-scale commercial enterprise in the United States. The American Sport Education Program , the National Youth Sports Coaches Association , and the Positive Coaching Alliance are among the most visible. Unfortunately, however, although their content does not deviate from what has been established empirically as producing a positive athletic climate, virtually nothing is known about what effects these specific programs actually have on coaches and athletes and how well they achieve their objectives. This absence of empirical attention is understandable, as developers of existing programs have been focused primarily on development, marketing, and dissemination rather than evaluation, and they have not had the benefit of research grants to support evaluation research. However, evaluation research is not only desirable, but essential to providing coaches with the quality of evidence-based training that will have the most salutary impact on their athletes. In the words of Lipsey and Cordray ( 2000 ), “the overarching goal of the program evaluation enterprise is to contribute to the improvement of social conditions by providing scientifically credible information and balanced judgment to legitimate social agents about the effectiveness of interventions intended to produce social benefits” (p. 346).

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Developing Athletes in the Context of Sport and Performance Psychology
Psychological Aspects of Athletic Training
Humanistic Theory in Sport, Performance, and Sports Coaching Psychology
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Descriptive Essay

Descriptive Essay Examples

Last updated on: Nov 20, 2023

Descriptive Essay Examples - 8 Examples To Help You Write Better

By: Cathy A.

10 min read

Reviewed By: Rylee W.

Published on: Dec 31, 2019

Do you need some good descriptive essay samples to understand how these essays work? We are here to help you write a descriptive essay with remarkable success!

So stay with us to learn the basics with the help of some great descriptive essay examples.

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What is a Descriptive Essay?

A descriptive essay describes and gives sensory details about a person, place, event, or thing in an in-depth and detailed manner. It is different from writing a narrative essay.

The aim of descriptive essay writing is to make the reader feel and see a certain thing, place, or person from your perspective. Your readers may have different points of view about the topic, your job is to make them see what you feel and believe.

These types of descriptions are often found in the literature; novels and dramas, where the writer constricts the whole scene through his or her words.

Ever noticed how you feel like actually seeing the character from a novel in your mind? Or a place? This is the power of a descriptive narrative.

What is the Aim of Descriptive Writing?

The sole aim of a descriptive essay writer is to draw a realistic and actual picture in front of the reader. These essays are a part of high school and college level and students.

Teachers give this type of descriptive writing task to students for developing the students’ skills of describing and explaining something in a detailed manner.

This skill is quite helpful in professional life as the students will know how to analyze something in detail and by considering its different angles.

While writing a descriptive essay can be a fun and enriching experience. Describing your emotions and feelings and dealing with a sensitive topic can be a challenging and daunting task. However, with practice, you can do it successfully.

Good Descriptive Essay Examples

It is not an easy task to write a descriptive essay at first attempt. This is why many students turn to the examples of a descriptive essay to understand its structure and content.

Samples and examples are great to help the students understand how to write certain types of essays. Every essay and assignment is different and, therefore, to score well, you need to be mindful of the content that you add to them.

Effective descriptive essay writing is more about describing different aspects and traits of the chosen subject and the type of feelings they inspire. Commonly, these types of essays describe a particular person, an event, a place, or an emotion with the aim to make the reader feel your way.

Descriptive essay example for grade 6

Descriptive essay example college

Descriptive essay example for university

Don’t give up! Continue reading to explore more amazing examples

Descriptive Essay Example about a Person

Writing about a person is probably the first choice of many students. They like to describe their parents, especially siblings, best friends, and teachers in their essays. However, when you choose to write about a person, it is better that you write about someone who you know.

Descriptive Essay Example about a Person (PDF)

Descriptive Essay Example about an Event

As humans, we come across a number of events and happenings. From casual friends get together to very formal weddings and parties, each one of us has something to talk about.

The descriptive essays about events describe the event, how the writer felt about it along the surrounding details.

Just like we say, a descriptive essay ‘describes’ the topic. In the case of descriptive essay examples about an event, the details will include the kind of event, the level of excitement of the writer, the surroundings, and an overall feeling.

Descriptive Essay Example about an Event (PDF)

Descriptive Essay Example About a Place

Describing a place that you visited in your summer holidays is quite an enjoyable experience. It is like you are visiting the same place again and having the same feelings.

When describing your favorite place in an essay, use vivid language. You can describe the details like the weather of the place, the main place that you visited, the kind of feeling you had.

Descriptive Essay Example about a Place (PDF)

Descriptive Essay Example about Emotions

Describing emotions and feelings is difficult.

Memories, emotions, and feelings are abstract and, therefore, explaining them is not easy. They cannot be explained independently, as you can explain a place or event.

A descriptive essay about emotions includes an event and the feelings associated with it. These could be feelings of sadness, anxiousness, confusion, surprise, and happiness.

Whatever emotions you describe, you can use related adjectives and adverbs to describe them.

Descriptive Essay Example about Emotions (PDF)

Descriptive Essay Example About a Visit

A visit to a doctor, a visit to a zoo, and your first visit to a museum, all make excellent descriptive essay topics.

If you go somewhere for the first time, it is natural to have a plethora of feelings and emotions. These could be feelings of joy and even fear.

Descriptive Essay Example about a Visit (PDF)

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Descriptive Essay Outline

Like every essay sample, a descriptive essay has an outline and format. The essay follows the traditional essay structure and includes:

1. An Introductory Paragraph

The first paragraph of an essay is the introduction and it usually sets the mood for the entire essay.

A good descriptive essay has a strong opening. It introduces the reader to the main topic and what the essay will be about. However, these details are brief and introduce the main topic only.

Some students think that adding more details in this section will add value to their work. Wrong. It will only minimize their chances of expanding the topic in the main paragraphs and leave them with fewer details.

2. Thesis Statement

A thesis statement tells the reader about the thesis question, based on the topic, and the writer’s claim and main argument. It is written after the introduction and before the main paragraphs.

A thesis statement is written at the end of the introduction, it is mainly a single sentence that describes the essay objective.

3. Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs take more than half of the entire essay and include all the main claims and arguments of the essay. Generally, it has three paragraphs but depends on the topic and its scope. Some topics may not have much to write about while others may have a wide scope and material.

However, if you feel that your topic does not have much room for expansion, do not try to drag it. It will only ruin its essence and overall feel.

4. Conclusion

A solid closing means a solid essay.

Some students think that because it is a closing paragraph, it requires less focus and is less important. But it is not the case. A clumsy conclusion will leave a bad impression and all your hard work may go to waste.

But, a conclusion is also not a place for new ideas. Stay brief and to the point.

To learn more about descriptive essay structure, you can watch this helpful video

Now that you know the basic outline, you can learn how to write a descriptive essay by visiting our blog and working with those tips and tricks.

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Descriptive Essay Topics

Got inspired by the examples and looking to write your own essay? So select the topic of your choice from the list below and write a tempting essay…

The street I love to walk around in
Exploring the beauty of nature
The pleasing sounds of rain
The most meaningful experience I had in college
Exploring a hidden gem in my hometown
My favorite book character
A day spent in my dream destination
Memories of various festivals I have celebrated
My favorite food that always brings back memories
These are some
The beauty of the rising sun in winter

Choosing a Topic for your Essay

Choosing a topic for your descriptive essay can be difficult and challenging. The reason is there are so many things to write about like

Relationships
Favorite place
Experiences
Things
Scenarios and many more.

All of these subjects make great descriptive essay topics. Some quick tips to help you choose a great descriptive essay topic include:

Choose a topic that interests you
Choose a topic with a good scope
Choose something that inspires you emotionally
Choose a topic that appeals to all five or at least one to two senses
Choose the topic according to your audience
Choose a topic that is interesting and will keep your readers glued and engaged

For interesting essay topics and ideas, visit our blog and get 100+ descriptive essay topics to choose from.

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Elements of a Great Descriptive Essay

Great essays are based on elements relevant to the main topic and explain it in detail. Just like other types of essays, descriptive essays are specifically based on describing the main topic. You can do this by using figurative language and words that appeal to the five senses like touch, taste, sight, etc. of the readers.

Some core elements include:

Choosing a specific subject:

Choosing the right and appealing subject is essential for a good descriptive essay. Research and make a list of the topics that interest you and see which one you could use for your essay. make sure that you know how to work on that topic before finalizing it.

Select the Details:

You cannot write about everything. No matter how many details there are, you have to choose the most dominant ones and stick to them closely.

Organize the Details:

Once you have chosen the details and organize them in chronological order. This step is especially important if you are talking about an event because then you have to add details related to the event.

Use Descriptive Language:

Descriptive and figurative language is a must if you want to draw a clear picture in front of your readers. Adjectives and adverbs, similes and metaphors, and comparisons are some techniques that you could use to compose your descriptive essay.

Use Appropriate Language:

Relevant language will help you in presenting the information in a coherent and simple manner. The topic of your essay will decide the kind of language that you will use in your essay.

Do Not Drag the Essay:

Dragging the essay will do no good for your essay. Writing an engaging essay is essential for successful descriptive essay writing. Coherent, relevant, and engaging facts will add credibility and a natural flair to your essay.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many paragraphs are in a descriptive essay.

Like any other essay, a descriptive essay also must have at least five paragraphs. The number of paragraphs could increase, based on the scope and need of the topic.

How can I write a good descriptive essay?

Writing a good descriptive essay requires vivid and detailed descriptions, creating an experience for the reader. To do this, it’s important to use clear language that creates images in the reader’s mind.

Additionally, using sensory details can help engage the reader and make them feel as if they are partaking in the experience described.

What are some examples of things you could describe in a descriptive essay?

Examples of things you could describe in a descriptive essay include a location, person, object, or event. Each of these should be explored in detail to help the reader form an accurate mental image.

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Interesting Descriptive Essay Topics Recommended by Experts

How To Write An Impactful Descriptive Essay?

Descriptive Essay

Definition of descriptive essay, qualities of a descriptive essay, difference between a description and a descriptive essay, examples of descriptive essays in literature, example #1: the corner store (by eudora welty).

“Our Little Store rose right up from the sidewalk; standing in a street of family houses, it alone hadn’t any yard in front, any tree or flower bed. It was a plain frame building covered over with brick. Above the door, a little railed porch ran across on an upstairs level and four windows with shades were looking out. But I didn’t catch on to those. Running in out of the sun, you met what seemed total obscurity inside. There were almost tangible smells — licorice recently sucked in a child’s cheek, dill pickle brine1 that had leaked through a paper sack in a fresh trail across the wooden floor, ammonia-loaded ice that had been hoisted from wet croker sacks and slammed into the icebox with its sweet butter at the door, and perhaps the smell of still untrapped mice.”

This description of the “Little Store” is not only clear and concise, but also has images and sensory information about the store building.

Example #2: And the Orchestra Played On (by Joanne Lipman)

“The hinges creaked when I opened the decrepit case. I was greeted by a cascade of loose horsehair — my bow a victim of mites, the repairman later explained. It was pure agony to twist my fingers into position. But to my astonishment and that of my teenage children — who had never heard me play — I could still manage a sound. “It turned out, a few days later, that there were 100 people just like me. When I showed up at a local school for rehearsal, there they were: five decades worth of former students. There were doctors and accountants, engineers and college professors. There were people who hadn’t played in decades, sitting alongside professionals like Mr. K.’s daughter Melanie, now a violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There were generations of music teachers.”

Example #3: Yarn (by Koyoko Mori)

“The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For the unit on knitting, we were 1 supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a D in home ec.”

See the use of colors in this paragraph by Koyoko Mori. This is called “pure description,” in that the description appeals to the senses. The use of word “brightness” in the last line is striking one.

Example #4: The Taj Mahal (by Salman Rushdie)

“And this, finally, is why the Taj Mahal must be seen: to remind us that the world is real, that the sound is truer than the echo, the original more forceful than its image in a mirror. The beauty of beautiful things is still able, in these image-saturated times, to transcend imitations. And the Taj Mahal is, beyond the power of words to say it, a lovely thing, perhaps the loveliest of things.”

Function of Descriptive Essay

13 Best Descriptive Essay Examples and Templates

A Descriptive Essay is a genre of essay writing that allows a writer to provide a vivid description of something- a person, an event, a place, a personal experience, an object, an emotion, etc.

Descriptive essays, like narrative essays, tend to allow the writer a great deal of artistic freedom than most academic writings. Good descriptive essays examples include newspaper articles, research papers, travelogues, memoirs of a personal experience, book reports, among others.

Purpose of Descriptive Essays

The primary purpose of writing a descriptive essay is to provide enough detail about a given topic to enable the reader to visualize it. Descriptive essays test a writer’s ability to use language creatively and originally to give the reader a more robust understanding of the specific topic or subject of discussion. This form of writing does not involve convincing readers or showing information to prove a point, like in argumentative essays, but it aims at describing all the important details about the given topic to make the reader understand it more easily.

Descriptive writing also benefits the author of the work. Whether the subject of a writer’s essay is personal or of cultural importance, descriptive essays are fundamental to mastering the art of descriptive writing. Descriptive essays are mostly assigned to high school students in composition classes to teach them the basics of writing and self-expression.

Essay Examples

Following are some free downloadable templates for you:

Descriptive Essay Writing Guidelines

The process of writing an effective descriptive essay involves topic selection, creating an outline, organizing ideas or points, and adding relevant information into the essay.

The following is a procedural guideline for descriptive essay writing:

Choose a particular prompt

Descriptive essay assignments tend to provide writers with a particular prompt or choice of prompts. Such assignments will often ask the writer to describe something based on personal experience, describe something out of imagination, or describe something more abstract, like an emotion. In either case, the writer should try to think of a topic that they feel they can comfortably describe in detail.

The selected essay topic should provoke specific feelings or sensations, and it should be a topic that the writer can describe in an appealing way to compel the reader to want to read more. When selecting an appropriate topic, it might be a great idea to summarize the essay’s main idea into a clear and defined thesis statement. The thesis statement should be less about the writer’s personal point of view and more about making a lasting impression on the reader’s mind.

Brainstorm/write down information

Next, the writer should take some time brainstorming ideas about their topic or prompt choice. Afterward, the writer should create a draft of their descriptive essay outline to organize information in a proper sequence. Writing down information on the given topic also helps writers structure their descriptive essay correctly and reminds them to include all the sensory details.

Write a descriptive essay introduction

An effective descriptive essay usually begins with an introduction. Here, the writer introduces the main topic of discussion and includes a strong opinion that creates the essay’s first impression. This is known as a hook , and it should be in the form of a rhetorical question or a bold statement. Next, the writer should provide a global context and highlight questions, points, or ideas that the rest of the essay will discuss. The thesis statement of the essay should be written as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph.

Writers should write a thesis statement that is clear and precise. The narrow subject line should also be written creatively and mysteriously to attract readers to the essay’s body.

Example of a hook and a thesis statement in descriptive essay writing:

My personal experience of fear For many reasons, the dark forest is my greatest fear, though not a fear that I necessarily like to venture into.

Body paragraphs

In most cases, descriptive essays encompass three body paragraphs. Each body paragraph covers a different point or argument, and it should begin with a topic sentence that anchors the reader’s attention and informs them what to expect from the paragraph. While writing a descriptive essay’s body paragraphs, writers are encouraged to be as specific as possible and avoid overwhelming readers with too much irrelevant information. Including 2-3 specific examples in the paragraphs also creates an impression on the readers’ minds.

Tip: It is essential to finish a body paragraph by introducing the next. To achieve this, appropriate transitional phrases are encouraged as they create immersion within the essay. This makes the essay better, and it will not come out as a list of facts.

Concluding paragraph

According to the descriptive essay’s format, the concluding paragraph should be a summary of all the points discussed in the essay’s body. However, the writer can also use it to reiterate the main point of the essay discussed in the introductory paragraph.

Tip: Writers should never introduce any new points in the essay’s conclusion. If there are any major points to discuss, it is best to create another body paragraph.

Proofread to upgrade the essay

After writing the essay, the writer should proofread the entire document to find out and correct any grammatical and spelling errors. Proofreading will also enable the writer to find areas where sensory details and descriptive language can help enhance a description. Including literary tools and figurative language in the essay creates a memorable image of the essay’s subject in the reader’s mind.

Tips to Improve Descriptive Writing

A writer’s ability to provide vivid descriptions on a given subject and make the subject’s settings and characters spring to life in the readers’ minds is critical in writing effective descriptive essays.

The consideration of the following key tips can be very beneficial to writers:

Brainstorm efficiently

This is a pre-writing consideration that writers should take into account to improve their descriptive writing skills. Taking a few minutes to brainstorm an essay’s topic helps writers generate ideas, develop order, and ease tension that often results in a loss of ideas or words amid writing.

Use of descriptive adjectives

Writing descriptively involves choosing the right words for an essay’s topic. The use of descriptive adjectives is important as they help add more information about the number, color, type, and other qualities of the nouns and pronouns used in the essay’s text. A writer’s choice of adverbs, verbs, and nouns is also crucial in providing readers with vivid descriptions, but their choice of words should remain relevant to what they intend to describe. While writing a descriptive essay, writers should avoid using cliché phrases and focus on more precise, original, and straightforward phrases. Using a thesaurus can help writers to find alternative word choices, but they should be careful not to overuse it.

For example:

As we walked through the thick forest, I looked back and saw an angry, green, venomous snake crawling from beneath the thick shrubs.

Vivid language

Good descriptive essay examples often make use of vivid language. By describing something vividly, it means that the writer has used descriptive language to paint a clear picture of the subject matter on the reader’s mind, allowing them to see clearly what the author had envisioned. If possible, writers should describe emotions or feelings related to the topic to connect with their readers on a deeper level.

Sensory details

The use of sensory details in descriptive essay writing is another essential tip that writers should consider when writing their essays. This means not only referring to what something looks like but also exploring its sense of smell, sound, taste, touch, etc. With more abstract subjects like emotions, writers can include sensory details metaphorically. Writings that incorporate vivid sensory details are more likely to engage and affect the reader’s perception of the given subject. Nevertheless, it is imperative to note that not all sensory details will apply to every subject.

Love is like a crescent moon. It is both sharp and curved and firm and gentle. Its white glow is soft enough to ignore if you choose it but bright enough to make even broken glass glisten and shimmer like a treasure all its own.

Use of figurative language

Figurative language consists of devices like metaphors , personification, hyperbole, symbolism, and similes that use words in non-literal ways to paint a memorable picture in a reader’s mind. This is important as it gives an author’s work its creative edge making it unique and appealing to the readers. However, this does not imply that writers should fill their essays with figurative language, making the essay lose its meaning. Instead, writers should use these devices creatively at various points throughout the essay to make the essay interesting, reader-engaging, and convey a unique perspective of the subject.

When I saw the dove soar high above my home, I immediately knew that the worst was over (symbolism) After the death of my father, I spent several weeks drowned in a sea of grief (Metaphor) The ocean’s water is as clear as crystal (simile) The night was calm. The only sound that could be heard was that of the howling winds (personification) The Corona Virus Pandemic and lockdown era showed us tougher times. A normal 24 hours day seemed like a month, and months seemed to be years (hyperbole)

Organize well

Good descriptive writing should be organized. Some common ways to organize descriptive writing include the chronological order (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. Providing organized and logical descriptions of events, people, objects, situations, etc., makes it easier for the readers to follow and understand the main ideas presented in the essay.

Get Help from Descriptive Essay Examples

Descriptive essays are a writer’s tool to communicate an experience they have had or illustrate a subject they have expertise in. Whether one plans to write a personal, subjective account or provide a more rigorous description of a particular subject, the following various descriptive essay examples will guide writers to effective descriptive essay writing. Our descriptive essay examples are originally written using the common 5 paragraph method, and they incorporate all the essential tips to effective descriptive writing. Review these descriptive essay examples to help you get started today!

Final Words

A descriptive essay is a genre of writing that prompts students to provide a vivid description of something. When writing descriptive essays, writers are encouraged to describe the given subject in a manner that makes the reader envision what they are describing. To achieve this, writers should make use of figurative language, sensory details, descriptive adjectives, and strong word choices to create memorable descriptions. Additionally, writers are encouraged to read various descriptive essay examples from reputable sources to improve their overall descriptive essay writing skills.

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How To Write The Methodology Chapter

The what, why & how explained simply (with examples).

By: Jenna Crossley (PhD) | Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | September 2021 (Updated April 2023)

So, you’ve pinned down your research topic and undertaken a review of the literature – now it’s time to write up the methodology section of your dissertation, thesis or research paper . But what exactly is the methodology chapter all about – and how do you go about writing one? In this post, we’ll unpack the topic, step by step .

Overview: The Methodology Chapter

The purpose of the methodology chapter
Why you need to craft this chapter (really) well
How to write and structure the chapter
Methodology chapter example
Essential takeaways

What (exactly) is the methodology chapter?

The methodology chapter is where you outline the philosophical underpinnings of your research and outline the specific methodological choices you’ve made. The point of the methodology chapter is to tell the reader exactly how you designed your study and, just as importantly, why you did it this way.

Importantly, this chapter should comprehensively describe and justify all the methodological choices you made in your study. For example, the approach you took to your research (i.e., qualitative, quantitative or mixed), who you collected data from (i.e., your sampling strategy), how you collected your data and, of course, how you analysed it. If that sounds a little intimidating, don’t worry – we’ll explain all these methodological choices in this post .

Why is the methodology chapter important?

The methodology chapter plays two important roles in your dissertation or thesis:

Firstly, it demonstrates your understanding of research theory, which is what earns you marks. A flawed research design or methodology would mean flawed results. So, this chapter is vital as it allows you to show the marker that you know what you’re doing and that your results are credible .

Secondly, the methodology chapter is what helps to make your study replicable. In other words, it allows other researchers to undertake your study using the same methodological approach, and compare their findings to yours. This is very important within academic research, as each study builds on previous studies.

The methodology chapter is also important in that it allows you to identify and discuss any methodological issues or problems you encountered (i.e., research limitations ), and to explain how you mitigated the impacts of these. Every research project has its limitations , so it’s important to acknowledge these openly and highlight your study’s value despite its limitations . Doing so demonstrates your understanding of research design, which will earn you marks. We’ll discuss limitations in a bit more detail later in this post, so stay tuned!

Need a helping hand?

How to write up the methodology chapter

First off, it’s worth noting that the exact structure and contents of the methodology chapter will vary depending on the field of research (e.g., humanities, chemistry or engineering) as well as the university . So, be sure to always check the guidelines provided by your institution for clarity and, if possible, review past dissertations from your university. Here we’re going to discuss a generic structure for a methodology chapter typically found in the sciences.

Before you start writing, it’s always a good idea to draw up a rough outline to guide your writing. Don’t just start writing without knowing what you’ll discuss where. If you do, you’ll likely end up with a disjointed, ill-flowing narrative . You’ll then waste a lot of time rewriting in an attempt to try to stitch all the pieces together. Do yourself a favour and start with the end in mind .

Section 1 – Introduction

As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, the methodology chapter should have a brief introduction. In this section, you should remind your readers what the focus of your study is, especially the research aims . As we’ve discussed many times on the blog, your methodology needs to align with your research aims, objectives and research questions. Therefore, it’s useful to frontload this component to remind the reader (and yourself!) what you’re trying to achieve.

In this section, you can also briefly mention how you’ll structure the chapter. This will help orient the reader and provide a bit of a roadmap so that they know what to expect. You don’t need a lot of detail here – just a brief outline will do.

The intro provides a roadmap to your methodology chapter

Section 2 – The Methodology

The next section of your chapter is where you’ll present the actual methodology. In this section, you need to detail and justify the key methodological choices you’ve made in a logical, intuitive fashion. Importantly, this is the heart of your methodology chapter, so you need to get specific – don’t hold back on the details here. This is not one of those “less is more” situations.

Let’s take a look at the most common components you’ll likely need to cover.

Methodological Choice #1 – Research Philosophy

Research philosophy refers to the underlying beliefs (i.e., the worldview) regarding how data about a phenomenon should be gathered , analysed and used . The research philosophy will serve as the core of your study and underpin all of the other research design choices, so it’s critically important that you understand which philosophy you’ll adopt and why you made that choice. If you’re not clear on this, take the time to get clarity before you make any further methodological choices.

While several research philosophies exist, two commonly adopted ones are positivism and interpretivism . These two sit roughly on opposite sides of the research philosophy spectrum.

Positivism states that the researcher can observe reality objectively and that there is only one reality, which exists independently of the observer. As a consequence, it is quite commonly the underlying research philosophy in quantitative studies and is oftentimes the assumed philosophy in the physical sciences.

Contrasted with this, interpretivism , which is often the underlying research philosophy in qualitative studies, assumes that the researcher performs a role in observing the world around them and that reality is unique to each observer . In other words, reality is observed subjectively .

These are just two philosophies (there are many more), but they demonstrate significantly different approaches to research and have a significant impact on all the methodological choices. Therefore, it’s vital that you clearly outline and justify your research philosophy at the beginning of your methodology chapter, as it sets the scene for everything that follows.

The research philosophy is at the core of the methodology chapter

Methodological Choice #2 – Research Type

The next thing you would typically discuss in your methodology section is the research type. The starting point for this is to indicate whether the research you conducted is inductive or deductive .

Inductive research takes a bottom-up approach , where the researcher begins with specific observations or data and then draws general conclusions or theories from those observations. Therefore these studies tend to be exploratory in terms of approach.

Conversely , d eductive research takes a top-down approach , where the researcher starts with a theory or hypothesis and then tests it using specific observations or data. Therefore these studies tend to be confirmatory in approach.

Related to this, you’ll need to indicate whether your study adopts a qualitative, quantitative or mixed approach. As we’ve mentioned, there’s a strong link between this choice and your research philosophy, so make sure that your choices are tightly aligned . When you write this section up, remember to clearly justify your choices, as they form the foundation of your study.

Methodological Choice #3 – Research Strategy

Next, you’ll need to discuss your research strategy (also referred to as a research design ). This methodological choice refers to the broader strategy in terms of how you’ll conduct your research, based on the aims of your study.

Several research strategies exist, including experimental , case studies , ethnography , grounded theory, action research , and phenomenology . Let’s take a look at two of these, experimental and ethnographic, to see how they contrast.

Experimental research makes use of the scientific method , where one group is the control group (in which no variables are manipulated ) and another is the experimental group (in which a specific variable is manipulated). This type of research is undertaken under strict conditions in a controlled, artificial environment (e.g., a laboratory). By having firm control over the environment, experimental research typically allows the researcher to establish causation between variables. Therefore, it can be a good choice if you have research aims that involve identifying causal relationships.

Ethnographic research , on the other hand, involves observing and capturing the experiences and perceptions of participants in their natural environment (for example, at home or in the office). In other words, in an uncontrolled environment. Naturally, this means that this research strategy would be far less suitable if your research aims involve identifying causation, but it would be very valuable if you’re looking to explore and examine a group culture, for example.

As you can see, the right research strategy will depend largely on your research aims and research questions – in other words, what you’re trying to figure out. Therefore, as with every other methodological choice, it’s essential to justify why you chose the research strategy you did.

Methodological Choice #4 – Time Horizon

The next thing you’ll need to detail in your methodology chapter is the time horizon. There are two options here: cross-sectional and longitudinal . In other words, whether the data for your study were all collected at one point in time (cross-sectional) or at multiple points in time (longitudinal).

The choice you make here depends again on your research aims, objectives and research questions. If, for example, you aim to assess how a specific group of people’s perspectives regarding a topic change over time , you’d likely adopt a longitudinal time horizon.

Another important factor to consider is simply whether you have the time necessary to adopt a longitudinal approach (which could involve collecting data over multiple months or even years). Oftentimes, the time pressures of your degree program will force your hand into adopting a cross-sectional time horizon, so keep this in mind.

Methodological Choice #5 – Sampling Strategy

Next, you’ll need to discuss your sampling strategy . There are two main categories of sampling, probability and non-probability sampling.

Probability sampling involves a random (and therefore representative) selection of participants from a population, whereas non-probability sampling entails selecting participants in a non-random (and therefore non-representative) manner. For example, selecting participants based on ease of access (this is called a convenience sample).

The right sampling approach depends largely on what you’re trying to achieve in your study. Specifically, whether you trying to develop findings that are generalisable to a population or not. Practicalities and resource constraints also play a large role here, as it can oftentimes be challenging to gain access to a truly random sample. In the video below, we explore some of the most common sampling strategies.

Methodological Choice #6 – Data Collection Method

Next up, you’ll need to explain how you’ll go about collecting the necessary data for your study. Your data collection method (or methods) will depend on the type of data that you plan to collect – in other words, qualitative or quantitative data.

Typically, quantitative research relies on surveys , data generated by lab equipment, analytics software or existing datasets. Qualitative research, on the other hand, often makes use of collection methods such as interviews , focus groups , participant observations, and ethnography.

So, as you can see, there is a tight link between this section and the design choices you outlined in earlier sections. Strong alignment between these sections, as well as your research aims and questions is therefore very important.

Methodological Choice #7 – Data Analysis Methods/Techniques

The final major methodological choice that you need to address is that of analysis techniques . In other words, how you’ll go about analysing your date once you’ve collected it. Here it’s important to be very specific about your analysis methods and/or techniques – don’t leave any room for interpretation. Also, as with all choices in this chapter, you need to justify each choice you make.

What exactly you discuss here will depend largely on the type of study you’re conducting (i.e., qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods). For qualitative studies, common analysis methods include content analysis , thematic analysis and discourse analysis . In the video below, we explain each of these in plain language.

For quantitative studies, you’ll almost always make use of descriptive statistics , and in many cases, you’ll also use inferential statistical techniques (e.g., correlation and regression analysis). In the video below, we unpack some of the core concepts involved in descriptive and inferential statistics.

In this section of your methodology chapter, it’s also important to discuss how you prepared your data for analysis, and what software you used (if any). For example, quantitative data will often require some initial preparation such as removing duplicates or incomplete responses . Similarly, qualitative data will often require transcription and perhaps even translation. As always, remember to state both what you did and why you did it.

Section 3 – The Methodological Limitations

With the key methodological choices outlined and justified, the next step is to discuss the limitations of your design. No research methodology is perfect – there will always be trade-offs between the “ideal” methodology and what’s practical and viable, given your constraints. Therefore, this section of your methodology chapter is where you’ll discuss the trade-offs you had to make, and why these were justified given the context.

Methodological limitations can vary greatly from study to study, ranging from common issues such as time and budget constraints to issues of sample or selection bias . For example, you may find that you didn’t manage to draw in enough respondents to achieve the desired sample size (and therefore, statistically significant results), or your sample may be skewed heavily towards a certain demographic, thereby negatively impacting representativeness .

In this section, it’s important to be critical of the shortcomings of your study. There’s no use trying to hide them (your marker will be aware of them regardless). By being critical, you’ll demonstrate to your marker that you have a strong understanding of research theory, so don’t be shy here. At the same time, don’t beat your study to death . State the limitations, why these were justified, how you mitigated their impacts to the best degree possible, and how your study still provides value despite these limitations .

Section 4 – Concluding Summary

Finally, it’s time to wrap up the methodology chapter with a brief concluding summary. In this section, you’ll want to concisely summarise what you’ve presented in the chapter. Here, it can be a good idea to use a figure to summarise the key decisions, especially if your university recommends using a specific model (for example, Saunders’ Research Onion ).

Importantly, this section needs to be brief – a paragraph or two maximum (it’s a summary, after all). Also, make sure that when you write up your concluding summary, you include only what you’ve already discussed in your chapter; don’t add any new information.

Methodology Chapter Example

In the video below, we walk you through an example of a high-quality research methodology chapter from a dissertation. We also unpack our free methodology chapter template so that you can see how best to structure your chapter.

Wrapping Up

And there you have it – the methodology chapter in a nutshell. As we’ve mentioned, the exact contents and structure of this chapter can vary between universities , so be sure to check in with your institution before you start writing. If possible, try to find dissertations or theses from former students of your specific degree program – this will give you a strong indication of the expectations and norms when it comes to the methodology chapter (and all the other chapters!).

Also, remember the golden rule of the methodology chapter – justify every choice ! Make sure that you clearly explain the “why” for every “what”, and reference credible methodology textbooks or academic sources to back up your justifications.

If you need a helping hand with your research methodology (or any other component of your research), be sure to check out our private coaching service , where we hold your hand through every step of the research journey. Until next time, good luck!

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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8 Qualities of a Good Coach
5. Observant. One of the essential skills and qualities of a coach is to be extremely observant of the client in front of them. Without being observant of not just what is being said verbally, but also being aware of the non-verbal cues, is an important skill for a coach to cultivate. Not all clients are going to be expressive and communicative.
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1033 Words. 5 Pages. Open Document. I have had many coaches throughout my life, some coaches have been good other not so good. My sports career started when I was three years old so I have had many different coaches coaches, my favorite coach I have ever had was my high school soccer coach. He is different from all the coaches I have had and he ...
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Coaching Experience in Sport
The aspect of coaching is an all-around practice that requires the leaders to have different abilities, including motivating, advising, analyzing, and coordinating relevant training programs to meet the development needs of all players in the team. Get a custom essay on Coaching Experience in Sport. 180 writers online.
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Focus Your Essay. As in any essay, when writing about an influential person in your life you should include a thesis statement. In this case, the thesis statement declares how or why this person has influenced you life. For example, if writing about your soccer coach, you may write, "Through his advice and the example of his character, my ...
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Descriptive Essay For Football. I have had many coaches throughout rec leagues, club teams, middle school and high school sports with all different types of styles, personalities, management skills, discipline styles, leadership roles and knowledge of the sport. The coach that I will always remember and admire is my club soccer coach.
How to Write a Descriptive Essay
Tips for writing descriptively. The key to writing an effective descriptive essay is to find ways of bringing your subject to life for the reader. You're not limited to providing a literal description as you would be in more formal essay types. Make use of figurative language, sensory details, and strong word choices to create a memorable ...
Descriptive Essays
The descriptive essay is a genre of essay that asks the student to describe something—object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc. This genre encourages the student's ability to create a written account of a particular experience. What is more, this genre allows for a great deal of artistic freedom (the goal of which is to ...
What is a Descriptive Essay? How to Write It (with Examples)
A descriptive essay's primary goal is to captivate the reader by writing a thorough and vivid explanation of the subject matter, while appealing to their various senses. A list of additional goals is as follows: - Spark feeling and imagination. - Create a vivid experience. - Paint a mental picture. - Pique curiosity.
How to Write a Descriptive Essay
How to Start a Descriptive Essay. Making sure you choose the right topic is the first hurdle to cross. A topic for a descriptive essay is vital because it is the main subject you will be writing about. Spend at least 20 minutes brainstorming different topic ideas and make sure you choose a topic that you know well.
Descriptive Essay Example Of A Good Coach: Pete Carroll
Descriptive Essay Example Of A Good Coach: Pete Carroll. Decent Essays. 294 Words; 2 Pages; Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. The Seattle Seahawks have a one of a kind coach named Pete Carroll. The Seahawks head coach likes to have fun during practice and in meetings and even has a mini basketball hoop in the ...
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A descriptive essay is one of the four main types of essays, alongside narrative, argumentative, and expository essays. Among these, descriptive essays can be particularly challenging because they demand a keen eye for detail and an appreciation for aesthetics. By vividly describing scenes and details, you engage your reader's senses, making ...
How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Step-by-Step Guide
Best Tips for Writing a Descriptive Essay. Outline the essay in sections and create a thesis statement to base the essay on. Then, write a strong introduction and describe the subject matter using creative and vivid adjectives. Use similes, metaphors, and your own emotions to help you bring the topic to life. Part 1.
Coaching Behavior and Effectiveness in Sport and Exercise Psychology
The coach is then asked to select three CBAS categories that they want to increase or decrease. Finally, role playing is used to help the coach rehearse the target behaviors with the guidance of the trainer. The coach is encouraged to self-monitor during subsequent practices and matches and are given guidelines and reminders.
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Free Descriptive Essay Examples For Your Help
Like every essay sample, a descriptive essay has an outline and format. The essay follows the traditional essay structure and includes: 1. An Introductory Paragraph. The first paragraph of an essay is the introduction and it usually sets the mood for the entire essay. A good descriptive essay has a strong opening.
Descriptive vs Analytical/Critical Writing (+ Examples)
Descriptive writing focuses on the what, while critical/analytical writing focuses on the so what. Analytical writing should link the discussion back to the research aims, objectives or research questions (the golden thread). Some amount of description will always be needed, but aim to minimise description and maximise analysis to earn higher ...
Examples and Definition of Descriptive Essay
A descriptive essay, as the name implies, is a form of essay that describes something. In this genre, students are assigned the task of describing objects, things, places, experiences, persons, and situations. The students use sensory information to enable readers to use their five senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight to understand ...
13 Best Descriptive Essay Examples and Templates
A Descriptive Essay is a genre of essay writing that allows a writer to provide a vivid description of something- a person, an event, a place, a personal experience, an object, an emotion, etc. . Descriptive essays, like narrative essays, tend to allow the writer a great deal of artistic freedom than most academic writings. Good descriptive essays examples include newspaper articles, research ...
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Common App Essay Examples. Here are the current Common App prompts. Click the links to jump to the examples for a specific prompt, or keep reading to review the examples for all the prompts. Prompt #1: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without ...
Descriptive Essay: The Unique Coach Purse
However, the Coach purse happens to be a unique purse because of its look, size, and smell. The exterior is made out of a very smooth, black leather material, extremely similar to the feel of the leather interior on the inside seat of a car. The straps of the purse is gold and leather. The room tends to be a little chilly which, in turn, makes ...
How To Write The Methodology Chapter
Do yourself a favour and start with the end in mind. Section 1 - Introduction. As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, the methodology chapter should have a brief introduction. In this section, you should remind your readers what the focus of your study is, especially the research aims. As we've discussed many times on the blog ...
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8 Qualities of a Good Coach – How to Be Truly Exceptional

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1. Driven

2. Non-judgmental

3. Compassionate

4. Curious

5. Observant

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7. Professional

8. Trustworthy

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Coaching Experience in Sport Essay

Introduction

My Experience with Rugby Team Coaches

Coaching Process

Coaching Philosophy

Coaching Ethics

My Experience as a Sports Coach

Long-Term Athlete Development

Periodization Planning

Goal Setting

Coaching Roles and Responsibilities

Coaching Styles

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay on an Influential Person in Your Life

How to Write a Speech About Someone I Admire

Focus Your Essay

Start With an Anecdote

Describe the Person

Describe Your Relationship

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Descriptive Essays

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